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HAUI /ˈhaʊi/; (born Howard J. Davis)[1] is a British Canadian multidisciplinary artist who directs, designs, and devises cross-disciplinary work. His work addresses themes of race, gender, identity, and sexual orientation, engaging with overlooked narratives, mythologies, and histories.[2]

Early life

HAUI was born in Bath, Somerset, of Cuban, Jamaican, and European descent.[3] His professional name, an acronym for Hybrid Art with a Unique Interpretation, serves as a framework for a multifaceted practice, reflecting his mixed heritage.[3] HAUI is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University.[4]

Career

HAUI joined the Shaw Festival acting ensemble in 2015, appearing in productions including Pygmalion and Sweet Charity.[5] In addition to his work at the Shaw Festival, he has appeared as an actor with companies including Factory Theatre, Outside the March, and Neptune Theatre.[6][7][8] He later returned to the Shaw Festival in subsequent seasons, contributing as a video/projection designer, including on Oh What a Lovely War in 2018.[9] In 2023, HAUI was part of the design team for Shadow of a Doubt, which won for Outstanding Design; the production was designed alongside Gillian Gallow and Bonnie Beecher and directed by Peter Hinton-Davis.[10] He has also worked in assistant and associate directing roles at major Canadian institutions, including the National Arts Centre,[11] the Grand Theatre (London, Ontario),[12] and as an associate director at Canadian Stage.[13]

Alongside his acting and directing work, HAUI has contributed design work for major Canadian institutions including the Stratford Festival, Luminato Festival, Theatre Calgary, Black Theatre Workshop, and Tarragon Theatre.[14]

HAUI’s screen work include his 2017 short film C’est Moi, which explores the life of Marie-Josèphe Angélique. It engages with Canada’s legacy of slavery and systemic racism, using symbolic storytelling to foreground suppressed historical narratives.[15] Internationally, the film was recognized for its visual symbolism, poetry, and educational value.[16]

HAUI directed his documentary feature-film debut MixedUp. The film was co-produced with trans filmmaker Jack Fox and produced in association with OUTtv (Canada).[17] It examines mixed-race identity, queerness, and personal history through a multidisciplinary lens. Etalk host Traci Melchor noted the film’s ability to “allow people to begin to heal.”[18] He also directed and devised the 2SLGBTQIA+ installation Private Flowers, commissioned by the City of Toronto for Pride 2023. The work centred on queer histories and memorialization through movement, memory and music.[19]

In 2024, HAUI became the youngest director to helm a production at the Canadian Opera Company[20][21] co-composing his libretto Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White, a theatrical work created in collaboration with conductor-composer Sean Mayes.[22] The piece, which centers on African Nova Scotian contralto Portia White, premiered at the Canadian Opera Company and was noted for its focus on diverse narratives.[23] The show received the 2025 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Opera/Musical and Outstanding Ensemble in an Opera.[24]

HAUI was a 2025 artist-in-residence at The Watermill Center in New York, an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts founded by avant-garde director Robert Wilson (director).[25] That same year, HAUI premiered the installation Aunt Harriet: An Ontario Oratorio.[26] The work is inspired by Harriet Miller, a Black woman who lived in rural southern Ontario in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and features dub poet Ahdri Zhina Mandiela in the title role. Blending poetry, portraiture, and performance, the project reflects what scholar Saidiya Hartman terms critical fabulation—the merging of historical record and imagination to recover suppressed histories.[27] Through this approach, HAUI and mandiela highlight the presence, commonness, and fullness of Black women’s lives within Canadian history. As HAUI told CBC Radio, “History is what is recorded: Myth is what is remembered”.[28]

HAUI was recently announced as one of the 2026/27 Britten Pears residents [29]

Personal life

He is married to the Canadian stage and opera director Peter Hinton-Davis. The couple met in 2015 during a Shaw Festival production of Pygmalion and were married in 2018 at their home.[30] HAUI has spoken about how his marriage represents a milestone for his queer identity, particularly regarding the historical context of LGBTQ+ rights in Canada.[31]

Awards

  • 2025 – Chalmers Arts Fellowship[32]

References

  1. ^ “Fifteen Questions Interview with HAUI”. 15 Questions. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  2. ^ “Q & A: HAUI™ Discusses Shedding Light on Underrepresented Figures Through Art”. OperaWire. 11 March 2025. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  3. ^ a b Balsom, Mike (February 22, 2024). “NOTL Artist HAUI shares important stories of diversity”. Thorold Today.
  4. ^ a b “HAUI – Alumni – Toronto Metropolitan University”. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  5. ^ “Kelowna actor’s dream coming true”. Kelowna Daily Courier. 2 January 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  6. ^ “Bombay Black”. Toronto Theatre Database. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  7. ^ “Passion Play”. Toronto Theatre Database. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  8. ^ “A bit of magic dust: Portia White and Portia Clark”. Halifax Examiner. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  9. ^ “Oh What a Lovely War’s ambitions pay off in dramatic fashion”. Toronto Star. 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  10. ^ “HAUI”. My Entertainment World. January 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  11. ^ “Louis Riel program” (PDF). National Arts Centre. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  12. ^ “Grand Theatre announces the world premiere of Silence”. Grand Theatre. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  13. ^ “Choir Boy”. Toronto Theatre Database. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  14. ^ “Stratford Festival programme” (PDF). Stratford Festival. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  15. ^ Melissa Gonik (27 March 2017). “New film takes a much-needed glance into Canada’s uncomfortable past with racism and slavery”. This Magazine. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  16. ^ Bataille, Eugénie (2017). “C’est Moi: Requiem pour Angélique d’Howard J. Davis”. Amina Magazine (Print) (in French) (571): 58–59.
  17. ^ “Film review: Mixed↑ turns the search for identity into a provocative and artful experiment”. Stir. 10 November 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  18. ^ “MixedUp on eTalk”. CTV’s eTalk. March 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  19. ^ “Fort York’s ‘Private Flowers’: new installation illuminates a his-story that (used to) dare not speak its name”. Toronto Star. 24 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  20. ^ “Robert Lepage”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 May 2026.
  21. ^ “Atom Egoyan”. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 May 2026.
  22. ^ “Aportia Chryptych tells an old Canadian story in a new way”. The Globe and Mail. 18 June 2024. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  23. ^ “Canadian Opera Company: Aportia Chryptych celebrates her legacy while foregrounding Black Canadian history”. Opera Canada. 17 June 2024. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  24. ^ a b “From a Mahabharata sweep to a Gen Z musical theatre boom, here’s how the 2025 Dora Awards played out”. The Globe and Mail. 30 June 2025. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  25. ^ “2025 Artists-in-Residence”. The Watermill Center. Retrieved 13 September 2025.
  26. ^ “Culture : Regard sur les aînés noirs à Guelph dans ce nouveau projet”. ICI Radio-Canada Première. 10 October 2025. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  27. ^ Hartman, Saidiya (2008). “Venus in Two Acts”. Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism. 12 (2): 1–14. doi:10.1215/07990537-2008-000.
  28. ^ “How Black and Queer Artists Embrace Myth-Making to Fill in Missing Canadian History”. CBC Radio Day 6. 10 October 2025. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  29. ^ Markay, Afton (May 5, 2026). “HAUI Named Among Britten Pears Arts Residency Artists for 2026–27”. OperaWire.
  30. ^ Balsom, Mike (February 14, 2024). “A true romance of Shavian proportions”. Niagara-on-the-Lake Local.
  31. ^ “Multidisciplinary Artivist Haui aka Howard J Davis Explores Mixed Heritage and Queerness”. Mundane Magazine.
  32. ^ “Chalmers Arts Fellowships”. Ontario Arts Council. 2024-06-04. Retrieved 2026-02-23.