After silently watching her collect her thoughts for an uncomfortable amount of time, my last therapist said to me: 

“An entire writers room couldn’t come up with your life.”

My name is Maarika Freund, and I’m an award winning actor, writer, producer, and choreographer who works towards making what feels inaccessible accessible.

Whether it’s through infusing humour into sticky subject matter to make it more relatable and digestible (PEACHES: THE PLAY!, peaches: the podcast!), or creating a safe atmosphere for all levels & all bodies at the dance studio (soft focus), I’m doing my absolute best to move the needle forward & encourage genuine + sustainable healing with whatever time I have left on this planet.

I guess you could say that took my old therapist’s log line to the last thirty-five years of my life as my cue, and finally released peaches: the podcast! into the world. Although, getting to that point was incredibly difficult, as there was a publication ban on my name that made speaking about my experience a federal crime.

Yes, you read that correctly.

The work I’m currently engaged in with was illegal up until October 5th, 2021, and all things PEACHES could have landed me a fine of up to $5K CAD and/or up to two years in prison (less a day), because of an unwanted publication ban that was placed on my name without my consent after coming forward. Thankfully, My Voice, My Choice, a grassroots initiative I was a founding member of, successfully changed the Canadian Criminal Code on October 26th, 2023 after a very long, arduous process with the judicial system. But now, thankfully, no human will have to go through what I went through in order to get their voice back.

peaches: the podcast! is a series dedicated to all of the things I learned while dedicating my life to never being r*ped again, and is now beginning to be celebrated for how I’ve helped to make a very sticky subject matter more relatable and digestible. After I stopped being booked in comedy clubs because my feminist-driven content made the male comedians “tOo uNcoMFortABle”, came PEACHES: THE PLAY! , a companion piece to the podcast, and it was awarded runner-up for “BEST OF THE FEST” during its world premiere at the 2023 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

But regardless of my old therapist’s log line to my last thirty-five rotations around the sun, this Finnish-Canadian really loves comedy. In fact, I like to think that I’m funny. So much so that I named my production company “Maarika is Funny” Productions. I fully understand that humour is subjective, hence the quotations marks. So feel free to decide just how funny I am for yourself (and check out my work!) at: www.maarikaisfunny.com

In actuality, I credit my struggles with why I’m so obsessed with finding light & humour within the darkest of situations. I fully believe that humour is the WD40 that gets healing started. Laughter helps shake things up, and creates a safe entry point to healing. It’s my sense of humour that saved my life, so I really understand what a powerful tool it is and can be when used appropriately and timed correctly.

Currently, my home base is in Tel Aviv, where I live with my Israeli-Canadian husband. I am delightfully human, which means I also come with flaws, just like everybody else. So I might make mistakes along the way in my quest to help. While my intentions are pure, the scary truth about “putting yourself out there” and making mistakes in this era of cancel culture is that it takes a level of courage we’ve never known before to keep showing up. Maybe that’s why the fictional characters I fantasize about being are Queen Tiabeanie and Daenerys Targaryen, even though I stopped watching Game of Thrones after season 4.

In my spare time, you can find me hiking with my husband or on the couch watching cartoons. What can I say, I like snacks. I’ve also been every single Golden Girl at some point in my life already, and am happy to say that I have finally settled into my Dorothy years, as I do one-day see myself singing old show tunes on a grand piano (though hopefully someplace nicer than the Rusty Anchor). That being said, my husband is leagues above Stanley Zbornak and I think cheesecake is just OK.

🍓

Maarika, who has been praised for her ability to create “comedic social critique[s]” by The Stir Vancouver, and who was described by NOW! Magazine as “ultimately formidable”, is an award winning actor, writer, & producer with a Specialist’s Degree in Theatre from the University of Toronto.

She co-wrote, co-produced, and co-starred in the web series “Millie & Midge” alongside Alaine Hutton, has had her work featured at the L.A. Comedy Festival, and finished a residency at Artscape Daniels in Toronto, Ontario, within their 2020/2021 Launchpad bursary program to incubate PEACHES: THE PODCAST and a television pilot that is currently in development.

Maarika was a founding member of My Voice, My Choice, an initiative that successfully changed the Canadian Criminal Code on October 26th, 2023 in order to secure better rights for victims of sexual assault.

She is also a professionally trained dancer (BATD), has been critically acclaimed for her theatre choreography on both sides of the equator, and is the founder of soft focus, choreography workshops designed to be accessible for all levels and all bodies.