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Tetsuro Shigematsu | He is a Canadian radio broadcaster,
comedian and filmmaker. He was 
the most recent host of CBC Radio One's former
afternoon series 'The Roundup,' making him the first person of
colour to host a daily national radio show in Canada. Prior to
working for CBC Radio, he was a writer for the Canadian TV show
'This Hour Has 22 Minutes.'
The descendant of Samurai warriors/philosophers,
Tetsuro was born in London, England. His family emigrated to Canada
in 1974. He grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia and studied
in Montréal. He has a bachelor's degree of Fine Arts from
Concordia University.
In 1991, at the age of 19, Shigematsu
became the youngest playwright to compete in the history of the
Quebec Drama Festival. One year later, he served as playwright-in-residence
at the Foolhouse Theatre Company.
From 1993 to 1996, Shigematsu
wrote and performed his one-man show 'Rising Son,' an autobiographical
one-man show recounting the experience of growing up culturally
estranged from his taciturn Japanese father, which played to sold-out
houses in Montréal, Boston, Los Angeles and Tokyo.
In 1994, Tetsuro studied poetry
with Allen Ginsberg. He then spent the following two years in
Japan, where he studied Butoh dance with the founding master,
Kazu Ohno, in Yokohama, Japan.
In 1996, he starred with George
Takei, (Star Trek's Sulu) in the television movie 'Rinko The Best
Bad Thing,' based upon the novel by Yoshiko Uchida. During that
same year, Tetsuro began hosting the Montréal Asian Heritage
Festival.
In 1997, he created and produced
three episodes of 'La La Pan-Asia,' a half-hour television show
showcasing Asian youth culture. In 1998, he was awarded Canada
Council grant to write a new play, 'The Moons of Tokyo.' In 1999,
Shigematsu was invited to be artist-in-residence at Technoboro,
an artist-run media lab.
His video work has been seen
in the Montréal World Film Festival, the Biosphere, and
won the Prix du Public at the Evénement Interuniversitaire
d'Art.
For his work as a syndicated
radio columnist, Tetsuro has won two Radio-Television News Directors'
Association (RTNDA) Awards. He also worked as a pop culture critic
for CBC Newsworld in Los Angeles.
In 2007, Tetsuro completed his
critically acclaimed, award-winning feature film debut, 'Yellow
Fellas,' which he wrote and directed.
Tetsuro Shigematsu video
Stand-up act on being Asian
Canadian, Winnipeg Comedy Festival, 2004 (61 MB Download / 4:23
minutes)
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