who’s that?
Carly Anna Billings (she/her) is a queer fat femme second-generation Italian-Canadian and Ojibwe actor, singer, comedian, theatre-maker, podcaster and storyteller born, bred and based in her favourite city, Hamilton, ON, which is the traditional lands of her people the Mississaugas of the Credit. She is grateful for and owes everything she has to the first peoples of this land acknowledged and unacknowledged, recorded and unrecorded.
She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Ottawa in Theatre (Acting) in French Immersion with a minor in Italian Language and Culture. Recently, she has been enrolled at The Second City Toronto studying improv and writing, completed the Hamilton Fringe ALERT program 2020-2021 for emerging artists and was a member of the 2022-2023 Nightwood Innovators cohort in Toronto. In May 2024 she was grateful to be participant in the National Playwright’s Retreat at Caravan Farm Theatre.
Select acting credits include: Jack’s Mother/ Cinderella’s Stepmother in Into the Woods (Deadname Theatre), The Vagina Monologues (Light Echo Theatre), 3 Seasons of Confederation Players at the Charlottetown Festival (2018 proud recipient of the George Coles Leadership Award at the Confederation Centre of the Arts.), Jaquenetta in Love’s Labour’s Lost (uOttawa).
Select theatre-making & directing credits: It’s a Beautiful Day for Brunch and to Arrest the Cops That Killed Breonna Taylor (named one of “5 Best Bets” by Beyond James at the Hamilton Fringe Festival 2021), Missed Connections (Hamilton Frost Bites Festival 2021).
She cofounded the bi-city theatre company Afterlife Theatre with roots in Toronto and Hamilton and is also a member of the core team of artist/producers at Light Echo Theatre in Hamilton.
Her original work has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council (recommended by such theatres as Native Earth Performing Arts, Studio 180, Tottering Biped), the Hamilton City Enrichment Fund and her original solo show Meat(less) Loaf, which premiered at the Hamilton Fringe Festival 2022 to critical acclaim, was supported by Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Hamilton Festival Theatre Co. as well as the Garden Project.
All this to say, she is extremely passionate about the magic of art, stories and language that can bring us all together. An actor, singer, mover, creator, writer and storyteller, she has many upcoming projects, some theatre and some not, including her role as an antique and vintage curator for her shop Much Ado About Knick Knacks, as a founding host of the weekly blast from the past pop culture podcast Before There Were #Hashtags and as co-host of the weekly spooky comedy podcast Ghosts Are Everywhere.
Carly Anna Billings
Photo © Gaetz Photography