Kudakwashe Rutendo

Kudakwashe Rutendo is an actor and writer based in Toronto, Canada. She was honoured as one of Toronto International Film Festival’s 2023 Rising Stars for her breakoutrole in the Elliott Page produced BACKSPOT and featured in Elle and Variety Canada as an actress to watch. Kudakwashe was one of the five panelists on Canada Reads, defending Tea Mutonji’s Shut up You’re Pretty in 2024. She has graduated from University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelors of Arts in English and Philosophy. In her years at University of Toronto she was fortunate to study under venerated Canadian authors Ian Williams and Robert McGill, she first fell in love with writing through poetry, and under their tutelage, Kudakwashe has tried to make the backbone of her work grounded in the poetic lens. She will begin the MFA Creative Writing program at UBC this fall.

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