Meet Your Maker: Bilal Baig explains how Insecure and their own history influenced hidden gem Sort Of

With Sort Of, Bilal Baig made history.

Created by Baig and Fab Filippo, the comedy is about Sabi Mehboob (Baig), a first generation Pakistani-Canadian non-binary millennial navigating their everyday life — balancing their relationship with their traditional Pakistani mother, their friends and dating life, and two jobs (caregiver to the kids of a young couple and bartender at an LGBTQ bookstore). "I've had special conversations with folks in my life who say it transformed their lives and relationships with their parents," says Bilal, the first queer South Asian Muslim actor to lead a Canadian primetime TV show (the series streams on Max in the U.S.). "It has resonated with younger folks too," they add, noting that diverting from traditional comedy and finding a balance in tone has allowed Sort Of to be an show with honesty at its core.

Season 2 of Sort Of ended in a cliffhanger, with Sabi kissing their best friend and losing their father, and Bilal says season 3 (currently in production) will explore the fallout of experiencing both those shocks in quick succession. "I was curious about exploring a side of Sabi we haven't seen. What happens to Sabi, and their world, when they make more impulsive choices or choices that serve them more than others," Baig teases.

In celebration of Pride month, we spoke to storyteller about what inspired their voice and what influenced their groundbreaking television show.

HBO

Baig's Own Life

Less of Sabi's story comes from Baig's life than viewers assume, but their lived experience does influence the series. The community Baig grew up in had a lot of other children of color, but Bilal still felt othered. Developing an understanding of what that meant impacted the work the creative shares with the world. "When I was 12 or 13, I didn't know I was developing a point of view about the world. But I look back on those years and remember keeping a lot of thoughts to myself. I had a lot of internal monologues and expressed myself creativity through writing at an early age," they tell EW. "I also grew up in a household around a lot of sad people who were also deeply, funny, sarcastic, and witty. When I think about the mixture of all of that, it feels like where the basis of my artistic voice at least started to develop."

White Biting Dog by Judith Thompson

Baig got their start on the stage and finds a lot of inspiration from the theater. Prolific Canadian playwright Judith Thompson's 1984 dark comedy White Biting Dog was a big inspiration for Baig in high school. "I just got really excited about human dialogue and what it took to capture real and complicated relationships between people," they explain of the poetic work, in which a suicidal man is rescued by a dog who pushes him down a path to save his father's life. The "potency" of the writing stood out to Baig, who enjoys its twisted humor.

They also are excited by Joelle Peters' recent rom-com about two young indigenous folks falling in love (Niizh) and the work of Our Place writer Kanika Ambrose. "There's a real specificity to culture and her kind of writing feels fresh, honest, and funny," Baig says of Ambrose.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Baig is drawn in by folks who are doing new and unexpected things within the genre they are working in. A recent example is poet Ocean Vuong's 2019 novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. "I'm excited by artists who are queerifying genres by just existing and sharing their voices," Baig says about Vuong's book, inspired by the author's own life but told in the form of a letter written from a young writer named Little Dog to his mother about their intensely loving but troubled bond, and their family's history as Vietnamese immigrants.

HBO Issa Rae and Yvonne Orji on HBO's 'Insecure'

Insecure

During the development of Sort Of, the co-creators referenced the fresh friendship dynamic between Issa and Molly on Insecure. "What I thought was so stunning was really understanding how and why these two characters love each other, and also that they can completely piss each other off," Baig explains. Issa Rae's beloved HBO comedy saw the best friends ride for each other, clash, and find their way back to one another during its five-season run. There was an honesty to it that felt rare on TV, and it was fundamental to how the characters on Sort Of interact. "People have straight up asked me why Sabi is friends with someone like 7ven [played by Amanda Cordner]," says Baig. "To me, it makes a lot of sense how those two characters found and latched on to each other."

Shows That Embrace The Quiet Moments

Baig points to Somebody Somewhere and Reservation Dogs as two examples of TV shows that package everyday life in a compelling way. The ability to live in those quiet moments is something the Sort Of aims to bring to its audience each episode.

Tangerine

A film that Baig often goes back to is Tangerine, which they feel didn't get enough recognition for its newcomers stars and the innovative process of making the movie. The 2015 film, filmed on smartphones and centered on two transgender women, was a boon for trans representation and independent film that happened around the time Laverne Cox had her breakout on Orange Is The New Black. "I read up as much as I could about the film and the process of finding [actresses Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor]. It was all really exciting," Baig says.

Baig's relationship with actress Ellora Patnaik

The mother-daughter relationship Sabi and Raffo (Ellora Patnaik) have on Sort Of comes from Baig's real history with Patnaik. The pair met in 2014 when a play Baig had written was being developed. "There's a lot of chemistry that was built over the years, and a real love and playfulness between us that existed long before the show," Baig shares. "We also both understand Urdu, so we have a language other people on set aren't necessarily privy to. It feels like a secret weapon," they explain.

The first two seasons of Sort Of are streaming on Max.

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