Rashif El Kaoui
Rashif El Kaoui earned a master's degree in diction from the Royal Conservatory Antwerp in 2014 and has since worked as an actor, audio maker, and writer. In 2016 he won the El Hizjra Literature Prize for prose. His work was published in Das Magazin and Das Mag’s 2018 Sampler. In 2018 he published ‘Oprecht Kwetsbaar’ as part of the ‘Karakters’ series for Ugent and TAZ, a fictitious essay on morality, identity and perception. As a columnist for De Standaard and Knack, we wrote op-eds on hot-button social issues. As a columnist for the Poëziekrant he shed an alternative light on poetry and literature.
Together with author Lucas De Man and photographer Ahmet Polat he worked on ‘De Man is Lam’, a project about modern-day man. The eponymous podcast was broadcast every month for a year on VPRO’s ‘Nooit Meer Slapen’. In 2019 he directed and starred in The Man Squad BE, the Belgian spin-off of a lecture performance on gender with a social-artistic bent.
He also joined the new open ensemble KVS, playing a role in Malcom X and Odysseus. Een zwerver komt thuis, Drarrie in de nacht (KVS), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Mesut Arslan and JR (FC Bergman/Toneelhuis/NTGent/KVS). El Kaoui teaches diction at ABK Mortsel and is a pitching and presentation coach at Syntra Bedrijfsopleidingen & Itzu.
As an actor, he alternates between large ‘classical’ theatre productions and smaller, more intimate projects like Een Jihad van liefde and Bij de buren, a read-aloud performance for underprivileged children whereby the actors perform at their home.
As a maker, he has worked for the Monty in Antwerp and Theater Zuidplein in Rotterdam, among other cultural venues. His own work is often created in collaboration with the audience and toes the line between reality, fiction and public engagement.
In 2021 he worked on the multimedia theatre production/documentary De Bastaard for Het Zuidelijke Toneel, which tells a personal story of bicultural identity. The eponymous documentary was broadcast by 'Het uur van de wolf’ (NTR).
El Kaoui has served as the master of ceremonies for B-Classic's Elfurenmis since 2020.
