Kausar Mohammed on New Acting Projects and Queer Muslim Representation

Talented and influential, Kausar Mohammed is a queer, Muslim, Pakistani actress and activist who is fighting for much-needed change when it comes to diversity and representation in Hollywood.

A graduate of UCLA, Mohammed has forged her path in acting, writing, comedy, and advocating for human rights. She is best known for her role as Dr. Meena Dhawan AKA Fast Track in the CW’s The Flash, can be seen as Rakhi in Coffee Shop Names, which is currently streaming on HBO Max, and her voice talents can be heard as Yaz on the GLAAD Award nominated hit animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

Most recently, Mohammed can be seen starring opposite Emily Hampshire and Hadley Robinson in the new horror-comedy film Appendage, which made its official premiere at the 2023 South by Southwest Film Festival. The project has been purchased by Hulu for distribution this upcoming fall.

OFM had the opportunity to catch up with Mohammed to talk more about her work on- and off-camera.

Kausar, I’d like to begin by asking you about your new film Appendage, which made its debut at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW). How exciting was that?

My goodness, it was so exciting! I think this film is very special. The cast is so brilliant, with Emily Hampshire and Hadley Robison, and the entire experience was so much fun. It’s directed by Anna Zlokovic, and she’s an amazing director who really supports actors in their process. My character, Esther, is our lead’s best friend, and I sort of get to have my own moments of figuring things out. I am very happy to be a part of this project, and I’m so proud of it.

What specifically drew you to this project?

For a starter, I’m obsessed with horror, and I love to do horror with comedy. To me, it has a lot of those similar beats. I know other folks within the horror-comedy realm, like Jordan Peele, talk about that as well. So, I’ve always been obsessed with the two, and what I love about this project is that it explores. The best type of horror can approach a theme or lesson and explore it through the horrors of things. This project does that with anxiety, and I thought it was incredibly relatable. The ways that anxiety affects everyone, and to be able to almost see a physical manifestation of anxiety through Appendage at large, I thought it was brilliant.

How would you say this film is different from any of your other acting jobs?

This is actually my first horror feature, and I hope there’s so many more in the future (laughs).

You also spoke on Variety‘s “Investing in the Future of Our South Asian Stories” South Asian House Panel during SXSW. How significant was that for you?

It was very important as a queer, Muslim, South Asian woman to be in this space and talk to other amazing South Asian folks about this topic. I am a strong believer in communities rising together, and we’re as strong as our community is. Being on the panel, I just couldn’t wait to dive into the topic and be surrounded by so many South Asian creators and filmmakers. There’s nothing like it.

You have made quite an impact on the entertainment industry by playing roles such as Fast Track on CW’s The Flash, Rakhi in Coffee Shop Names, and Soraya in 4400. Have you always had a passion for acting and performing?

I started with a passion of just being goofy and doing ridiculous things whenever I had an audience. I used to sing outside the library, and by the way, I’m not a singer (laughs). I would sing bad on purpose for an audience, just to be goofy. That then sort of translated into shooting my own home music videos with friends. I specifically remember “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” That was a hot one that we made! Then it sort of grew from there, live performance to on-camera performance, and I also really loved sketch comedy. There’s nothing like being able to make people laugh, and I think that’s one of the biggest gifts to give and receive.

You have also done a great deal of voice acting, and you can be heard as Yaz on Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. What drew you to that area of entertainment, and how does it compare to live-action?

Voiceover has also been one of the biggest joys of my life, and I sort of stumbled on it. I feel like a lot of my entertainment career is me being like, “I didn’t know that was a thing!” I didn’t know sketch comedy was a thing until I was at UCLA and a part of their sketch team, and I didn’t know voiceover was a thing. It never occurred to me that people voiced these characters; I just kind of stumbled on it through, hey, try this audition, and it’s unlocked a lot of things.

There’s a certain vulnerability and a certain commitment that comes from voice acting. I feel like it’s training a very specific muscle for me. Very often, I shoot in my closet, which has been retrofitted into a sound booth. Doing that, it’s like, OK, using the ultimate imagination. Committing to the idea that I am now a 10-year-old boy who is a bully. I feel it has strengthened the imagination and empathy muscle that I treasure as an actor.

Aside from acting, you have also worked behind the camera. In 2021, you wrote a short film called The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night, which follows Noor, a queer, Pakistani, Muslim woman who brings her Puerto Rican girlfriend home for the first time. What made you decide to write a story with such a strong character?

It was important to be able to see narratives of, one, Muslim women normalized, and on top of that, queer folks normalized. At that time, I just really wanted a happy ending for a queer, Muslim woman. It was aspirational, and that’s something we talk about a lot, centering stories of joy for our communities because we don’t often get to see happy endings for our people. I think in writing it, I was able to be like, OK, now I can almost imagine a happy ending for myself. That was very lovely.

The short was a landmark for Muslim women and queer people in the film industry. What more needs to be done to break down these barriers?

Just give us more stories! There can never be enough stories. I sometimes hear the criticism of, “We already have those stories,” but one isn’t enough. I want over-saturation. I want all the stories to be of the things we traditionally and historically haven’t been able to see on TV because I think that’s what we need. There’s such power in our media. It allows for the viewer to empathize, connect, and humanize a person in front of them, and when that person happens to be someone we haven’t historically seen at the center as our main character, it does so much for our world.

So, I just want to continue to be able to see more and more stories. Also, being any of these things, being a person of color, a queer person, a Muslim person—It isn’t a monolith. There are so many versions of us, and I want to see every version because not only is representation important, but it makes for good stories. Don’t we all want to see different types of stories? There’s such power and specificity.

Whether it’s acting on camera, voiceover, or working behind the camera, what do you always hope audiences take away from your work?

That’s a good question. I hope they somehow, some way, take away the desire to lean into their own authenticity. I know I feel so free when I watch certain performers just being themselves, and I hope I can lean into that to empower another viewer to be like, I’m just going to be myself today.

You are also a co-founder of the organization Shift, a racial and gender equity consulting group created by women of color. Can you tell us how that began?

Shift started back in 2017 out of the Me Too Movement. My co-founders, Natalie Bui and Veline Mojarro, we have all been doing gender equity and racial equity work in our own spaces, and when Me Too hit, I specifically remember being on set for something when the news about Harvey Weinstein and all that bullshit broke. Just looking around and seeing how people didn’t have the language or the vernacular to talk about any of this safely, like not knowing how to engage in conversations around consent and anti-sexual harassment work, it made me think of the times that I had worked together with these other amazing women.

So, Natalie, Veline, and I decided to come together and create this space called Shift to really engage in anti-oppression and community care work. We wanted to make a space where we can talk about all these topics, dissect them, and educate about them in the way that we would be able to with friends. So often, it’s done in a way that doesn’t center on survivors, people of color, or the folks who are most impacted. That’s what we strive to do, so we offer training and consultation.

What are some of the biggest goals you hope Shift achieves?

I’m a strong believer that impact needs to happen institutionally, but it starts on a smaller level and through our interpersonal relationships, how we treat each other and how we engage in community. So, whenever we’re with a client, I hope that the takeaway is just understanding the impacts that we can have on each other, but also, in my dream world, it would be a place where we move towards spaces where we truly care for each other.

When I say care, I mean care in a very specific way. Like, what policies are in place to make sure that folks can be taking the proper time off? What policies are in place to allow for better management? How do we institutionalize community care? To me, that is the future.

What are some future goals you hope to accomplish with your acting career?

I love characters, and coming from this sort of sketch comedy background, I’d love to be able to just envelop myself in characters. That means all the villains, and I want more horror in my life because I’m obsessed. I want all the fantastical things, and I can’t wait to play a wizard or witch and just embrace all those big characters because I love escapism. I have so much value when I watch something that has that sort of escapist nature, and I want to be able to engage. Like, I love Helena Bonham Carter and everything she does. I want things I can just soak myself into. I think that’s probably what every actor wants, right?

I also want to continue creating my own stuff as well. I’m developing a lot of my own projects that are within the horror-comedy realm, and I’m working with my sketch comedy team. So, I just want to keep creating my own stories. Acting, writing, producing—I want to do it all!

Stay up-to-date and connect with Mohammed by following her on Twitter and Instagram @kausartheperson.

Photos courtesy of Shanley Kellis