Sums Selvarajan

Sums Selvarajan is a creative producer whose work primarily focuses on strengthening Asian diaspora theatre-making in Aotearoa.

Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Selvarajan moved to Aotearoa in 2009 when she was 26. She has built an extensive producing portfolio, including working on short performance festival Short+Sweet (2011–2019), indie arts festival Chromacon (since 2015) and co-producing and managing the Modern Māori Quartet (2015–2021).

As a creative producer for Oryza and SquareSums&Co., the latter of which she co-founded, Selvarajan has produced a number of productions including Ahi Karunaharan’s Tea (2018), Chye-Ling Huang’s Call of the Sparrow (2016) and Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen’s The Mooncake and The Kumara (2015).

Since 2018, she has also run the Asian Playwrights Lab, a platform supporting emerging writers to develop original theatrical works. Notable works which have emerged from this workshop include Ankita Singh’s Basmati Bitch (2023), as well as work by playwrights like Nathan Joe. In 2020, Selvarajan produced the pandemic project, Portraits — which presented mini-documentaries on Instagram of Asian artists in Tāmaki Makaurau, including Micheal McCabe, Helen Yeung, Roseanne Liang and Hans — and in 2022, set up the inaugural event, Asian Diaspora Dialogues, which brought together a range of Asian creatives for kōrero and networking.

Selvarajan graduated with an LL.B. (Hons) from the University of London in 2007 (which she completed remotely). In 2022, she joined Auckland Theatre Company as their producer.

Oryza Foundation

ART Venture 2015 Interview

Theatre

2023 — Basmati Bitch
2022 — Actor//Android (Associate Producer)
2022 — Scenes From A Yellow Peril
2021 — The Mourning After
2018 — Tea
2016 — Call of the Sparrows
2015 — The Mooncake and the Kūmara

Screen

2022 — Portraits (12-part documentary)

Initiatives

2018–present — Asian Playwrights Lab