This spring, the City of Toronto surprised almost everyone by naming former Little Mosque on the Prairie star and producer Zaib Shaikh its new film commissioner, heading up a department that oversaw $1.2 billion in on-location filming in 2013. While previous commissioners only handled film and television, Shaikh, whose title also includes director of entertainment industries, will also oversee music and multimedia initiatives. So, as the busiest street-level TIFF wraps its red carpet, we feature an interview done with Shaikh this summer about what made him take the leap into the wonderful world of municipal bureaucracy

Film commissioner is a bit of a departure from actor: what made you say yes when you were approached about the job?
It was a newly formed vision of what the city can do with, and for, the industry. It was the idea of removing the silos of what is traditionally a film office and an event office and [creating] a full service team working with the industry. It’s what happening on the street: industries working together.

What’s new in the remit?
On a certain level, the team has never been as big [or] as complementary to each other. For example: the events team [now] falls under film and entertainment. We manage the entire strategy of how things are put together and that everyone has a safe and happy time. We had a great meeting with TIFF [in July], and the events team was part of it. [In the past] you’d have the film office in the TIFF conversations, and then the events team would be called by the film office only if their help was needed. But this time we had our events team right in the meeting with them – we were able to solve a lot of challenges and discuss possibilities in a way the city has never been able to before.

How does being an industry “insider” give you an edge?
I’ve worked on film sets, I’ve worked as a producer, an actor and as a director. So on that level, I have a very close connection with what it actually takes to make film and television, not only in this country, but because I’ve worked on international productions, also what it takes to build relationships with international producers as well.

What are your goals?
What I’d like to do is…increase the diversity, accessibility and connectivity of [the city’s cultural] sectors – film, fashion, music, food, events, tourism as a whole, but also within those sectors themselves. The more our artistic and cultural and media industry stakeholders talk to each other, the more they understand each one’s best practices, challenges and how they can help each other. I think that makes for a great environment where real business possibilities exist. It happens on an industry level already, but for a city to become a facilitator of that – that is a unique thing.

It’s been a crazy summer for traffic in the downtown core: how do you handle grumbling when roads and sidewalks are shut down for filming?
This is a city process – this is not just a film office process, or a film commission process. Films first put in their best case scenarios of what they’re looking for [and] as a city, we’re here to make it happen for you. We know residents actually appreciate the benefits of the film industry [so] our biggest role is to not only grow that business, but to also keep residents happy. That’s the key – the more you communicate, the more I think people understand what you’re trying to do. People want to be part of it. They don’t want it to happen in spite of them, they want it to happen because of them.