Toronto Police Investigating “Suspicious” Death of Film Director Reeyaz Habib
Toronto Police have opened a homicide investigation after local filmmaker Reeyaz Habib was found dead in the city’s West End on June 8.
Habib, a graduate of the School of Cinematic Arts at USC, recently completed his directorial debut, the comedy Fat Lady Sriracha, which is in postproduction. Toronto Police Services on Wednesday said the homicide and missing persons unit was investigating a “suspicious death” that occurred June 8 in the Liberty Village neighborhood and appealed for help from the public to establish the director’s whereabouts between June 4 and 8.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
“Reeyaz was a wonderfully kind spirit, full of an excitement for life and telling the complex yet necessary stories within it. He brought us all together to fulfill a lifelong dream. We’re extremely grateful for the time and trust we got to have with him and look forward to honoring his legacy by making sure his story gets told,” Fat Lady Sriracha producer Jaskaran Singh said in a statement.
Fat Lady Sriracha stars Milcania Diaz-Rojas, Carlo Rota, Richard Fitzpatrick, Benjamin Sutherland and Angela Besharah and follows an aspiring chef with little interest in family, but who becomes a surrogate mother to a loan shark to repay her deadbeat father’s gambling debts.
The film, based on Habib’s screenplay, is also produced by Shachi Sharma and associate produced by Rikhil Bahadur and Kate Hornsby. Game Theory Films will be distributing in Canada. The film was selected by Game Theory Film’s Black Indigenous and People of Color Fund.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
Natalie Portman at Cannes: "I Need to Leave the Drama for the Screen"
Ailing ‘Superman’ Star Valerie Perrine Finally Finds Her Hero: "The Guy Should Be Sainted"
