High school French teacher, improviser, actress: Fabiola N. Aladdin, whom we see more and more on our screens, cherishes the life that allows her to live all her passions. And she kisses each with fervor.
She seems intimidated during the photo shoot, but don’t just trust her soft voice and twirling hands when she speaks. Her face spontaneously lights up with a wide smile when a joke bursts out, and she comments on everything that happens with a mixture of irony and frankness.
In short, Fabiola N. Aladdin is very funny, and it’s not so surprising, since she’s an ace improv. Star of the Punch Club, among others, she was even recently admitted to the regular roster of the National Improv League, after having been a substitute player there.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Fabiola N. Aladdin is an improv ace.
“When I received the long-awaited email, I was at the grocery store. I tried to call all my friends to let them know, but no one answered. So I told the cashier. »
It is also thanks to improvisation that Fabiola N. Aladdin got her first role. Indeed, it was there that she met Florence Longpré, who offered her to be part of the chorus of her play Sylvie loves Maurice in 2017. Shortly after, she got the role of Tessa in Can you hear me ?and everything started to tumble: web series, pubs, appearances here and there, up to the role of nurse Yasmine in the excellent series Without an appointment.
“It gave me visibility, I did another web series, other commercials, then an audition for Viking… A coffee with director Stéphane Lafleur later, she found herself in the crew of this atypical and brilliant film which led her to the red carpet of the Toronto Film Festival in early fall.
” What is the relationship ? exclaims the one who, through it all, continued to practice her profession as a secondary school teacher.
When I started my education baccalaureate in Sherbrooke and I was doing sketches in bars, I never thought that improv would take me so far. I was really good with that, being a teacher. It was fine with me, because I loved teaching so much. I still love teaching so much.
Fabiola N. Aladdin
Young people too, she likes them – “it doesn’t make sense how much”. And this profession that she has chosen, she wants to continue to practice it as long as possible. Even if his career takes off, even if it’s sometimes “big chunks of life” in terms of schedule.
“But everything is worth it. It’s not like I woke up angry. All my days, I chose them. »
Do everything
It was somewhat by chance that Fabiola N. Aladin started doing improv at the end of high school. For the young girl who grew up in Repentigny, in the northern crown, this encounter with the arts allowed her “to be with a more capital E”.
If she didn’t go to theater school, it’s because she was just as passionate about teaching. But at 33, when she looks at her life, she can’t believe she manages to do everything that interests her without having to choose.
“I have the luck or the bad luck to like a lot of business, and there, I can do everything: write, play, teach, sing. I could burst into tears when I think about it too long. As if everything had come together so that I could have a daily life like all the things I love. But what luck! »
A chance also to rub shoulders with lots of new interesting people, and to learn every day, among other things by working with seasoned actors.
“Beside them, I feel like a big baby!” »
But I think people respect the different nature of my background. And every scene shot with these artists fills my toolbox. I kept saying that to Steve Laplante during viking : it was like a game lesson every time.
Fabiola N. Aladdin
And then improvisation gives him other strengths, like this “real listening to others”, and an ease in adapting to situations.
The following
Fabiola N. Aladdin doesn’t know where she will be in three years. But she is not lacking in projects. In the spring, we will see her at the theater in Tony sells tickets at Duceppe, then later on Club illico in the series Last resort by Louis Choquette, with Pier-Luc Funk and Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse.
She also hopes to find time to work on the co-scriptwriting of a feature film. And has no intention of leaving the education sector.
“I want to introduce myself as Fabiola, the teacher, actress, improviser, and not Fabiola, actress, improviser, formerly a teacher. It’s my identity, made there. I need to continue to be this person who is me. »