Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa

“Keep doing your best, speak your truth, and it’s okay to change your mind tomorrow – growth is awesome!”

Storybound explores what it means to write – from the heart and soul – and where that writing takes us. Every writer’s journey is different, so we invite you to take a moment to read, pause and reflect on what it means to shape stories for the page.

Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa is a writer, performer, theatre-maker, filmmaker, and producer based in Boorloo. Her work as a multi-form artist for the last ten years has been recognised at the Performing Arts WA Awards (2020), Mona Brand Writing Awards (2022), WA Multicultural Awards (2022) and Young Australian Sikh of the Year (2023). Her passion for storytelling began as a finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam (2014), semi-finalist on Australia’s Got Talent (2016) and winner of The Moth GrandSLAM (2019). Sukhjit is the Executive Director of The Blue Room Theatre.

Centre for Stories: What is your favourite way to consume stories?

Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa: Live performance.

CFS: What are you currently reading/watching/listening?

SKK: I am watching old TV series that I never got into when they first came out, like The Office, Ugly Betty, and The Thin Blue Line. My taste in TV is very light and sappy and needs to make me laugh.

CFS: Your work is deeply connected to storytelling and community-driven experiences. When you’re not working at The Blue Room Theatre, what are you working on?

SKK: I’m going to be publishing my first book in 2025, so that’s pretty exciting. I’ve loved working with Centre for Stories on Saga Sisterhood, which came back to The Blue Room Theatre during Summer Nights. And we have some exciting projects on the horizon together. I have loved working with Centre for Stories with all my different hats; it’s been super special to grow as a human and as a writer and also witness the growth of such an amazing organisation.

CFS: Who would you like to collaborate with in future?

SKK: Dream collaborators would be Donald Glover, Issa Rae, and Steve Carell, but locally, I would love to collaborate with Pavan Kumar Hari again, whom I was lucky to work with back in 2019. I’d love to make something with Ana Tiwary, Katrina Irawati Graham, Roshelle Fong, Janel Yau, and my partner Perun Bonser.

CFS: What is the best advice you could give or that you have received?

SKK: Keep doing your best, speak your truth, and it’s okay to change your mind tomorrow – growth is awesome!

Sukhjit is a writer, performer, theatre-maker, filmmaker, and producer based in Boorloo. Her work as a multi-form artist for the last ten years has been recognised at the Performing Arts WA Awards (2020), Mona Brand Writing Awards (2022), WA Multicultural Awards (2022) and Young Australian Sikh of the Year (2023). Her passion for storytelling began as a finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam (2014), semi-finalist on Australia’s Got Talent (2016) and winner of The Moth GrandSLAM (2019).

Sukhjit spoke at TedxUWA (2017) and TedxNewtown (2019) and has supported Missy Higgins and L-FRESH the Lion on their national tours. Her poetry and community arts projects have led her to tour globally and across her nation. Sukhjit premiered her sell-out theatre show FULLY SIKH with Barking Gecko Theatre Company and Black Swan Theatre Company (2019). Since then, she has been developing her comedy series WHAT WOULD SUKI DO? with support from ABC TV and is currently producing A HAIRY TALE, a documentary exploring female body hair.

Sukhjit and her partner, Perun Bonser, were selected to develop their rom-com series ONE OF THE GOOD ONES at Ron Howard & Brian Grazer’s talent lab, Impact Australia (2020). They premiered their video installation work BETWEEN BREATHS at Goolugatup Heathcote Art Gallery (2022), and the work toured in 4A Contemporary Asian Art Centre’s BUSH DIWAN (2022). Sukhjit has been a story-telling trainer at the Centre for Stories and has produced storytelling and theatre projects for adults and school students. COLLECTABLES, her debut hip-hop single, is now streaming on all platforms. Sukhjit is the Executive Director of The Blue Room Theatre.

Writing Change, Writing Inclusion is Centre for Stories’ signature writing program for 2021 to 2024. Generously funded by The Ian Potter Foundation, Australia Council for the Arts, My Place, and Centre for Stories Founders Circle, this writing program features mentoring, hot desk, and publication opportunities for emerging writers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and/or Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

These stories have been licensed to the Centre for Stories by the Storyteller. For reproduction and distribution of these stories, please contact the Centre for Stories.

This interview was published in 2024.

View Story Transcript

“Get everything in your head out before you lose the spark—no matter how clunky or corny it sounds”.