Kausar Mohammed | Advocate Now

The comedian has made it a mission to showcase queer Muslim joy, as Mohammed says "representations of Muslims are already fairly stark." She adds that the "diaspora" of the communities is "beautiful and amazing, but we don't see them."

"Even more so, to see queer Muslims on screen is literally pretty much non-existent," Mohammed says, continuing, "Both of these beautiful communities that I'm a part of and I love so much are historically marginalized onscreen. So when we get to see them in their joy, I think it is revolutionary and it is defying a lot of stereotypes. And it lets someone know that we are human, which is truly one of the most important things."

Mohammed is also a member of the all South Asian sketch comedy troupe, “The Get Brown." She says that she got involved in sketch through her time at UCLA, which is also where she met the women she would go on to form her company with.

The consulting group for racial and gender equity, Shift, advocates for inclusion across industries. To Mohammed, it was a way to bring "arts activism into racial equity work."

"Let's make a space where we can talk about consent, talk about racial equity, talk about gender equity and all the intersections, and center the people that it impacts the most, which is the survivors, which is trans folks, which is black folks and indigenous folks and disabled folks," she says. "[Let's] break this down and provide educational tools."

Despite the growth in representation that marginalized communities have seen in recent years, Mohammed says that the projects with the biggest budgets still largely feature primarily White men. Movies and television shows with diverse casts also often receive less funds for marketing.

Mohammed says that going forward she hopes to see studios and audiences put their "money where the mouth is" and continue to invest in diverse projects.

"I am so proud of our communities for coming up, making roles for each other and for ourselves and space, and to see other South Asians, Muslims, queer folks not only on camera, but behind camera and [at executive] levels," she says. "But I want more of it. And I look forward to moments where there's true importance of budgets and money put behind."

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