Tim Sims

Tim Sims (1962 – February 2, 1995) was a Canadian actor and comedian.

He is known for his roles as Jack the Cave Man on The Red Green Show and as Circle Researcher Rory Tate in a series of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercials in the 1990s. He also performed sketch comedy with The Second City.

Sims died at the age of 33 from AIDS-related causes. The Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award and Tim Sims Playhouse, a Toronto venue used by The Second City, are both named in his honour.

Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award The Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award is an annual award given to Canada's "most promising new comedy act". It was established by Sims' widow, comic actor Lindsay Leese. From 1996 to 2015, the Award is given annually as part of the Cream of Comedy showcase at The Second City, which features performances by that year's five finalists and which was televised by The Comedy Network until the final few years. In 2015, the 20th and final Cream of Comedy showcase (CoC20) took place at Toronto's Second City, featuring performances by many previous winners and nominees.

Since 2016 two Tim Sims Awards have been given out annually, one to a Second City Training Centre Conservatory Program Graduate, and another to a student of the Comedy Writing and Performance Program at Humber College.

Winners 1996-2015 1996 - Jason Thompson: "Horror Clown" 1997 - Fast & Dirty (Gord Oxley & Rob Hawke) 1998 - Gavin Crawford 1999 - Fraser Young 2000 - Laurie Elliot 2001 - Levi MacDougall 2002* - Brad Hart & Tim Polley 2003 - Ron Sparks 2004 - Katie Crown 2005 - Jeff McEnery 2006 - Nathan Fielder 2007 - Nathan Macintosh 2008 - 7 Minutes in Heaven (Josh Saltzman & Laura Cilevitz) 2009 - Calvin Storoschuk 2010 - Mike Rita 2011 - British Teeth (Filip Jeremic & Allana Reoch) 2012 - Christi Olson 2013 - Nigel Grinstead 2014 - Caitlin Langelier in 2002 Hart and Polley tied for the award after the jury became hopelessly deadlocked; a new rule was made that Lindsay Leese would receive a tie-break in future years, if necessary, to avoid the same problem.

2015-present Humber College Comedy Program students 2015 - Meg MacKay 2016 - Robbie Woods 2017 - Jordanne Brown 2018 - Glenys Marshall 2019 - Bria Hiebert 2020 - Nate Friedman 2021 - Cassandra DeStellis 2022 - Katie Chin 2023 - Sarah Boston 2024 - Brady Coyle 2025 - Verne Bird 2026 - Arnab Sen

Second City Training Centre Conservatory Program graduates 2015 - Carolina Zoccoli 2016 - Cameron LaPrairie 2017 - Tom Hearn 2018 - Ophira Calof 2019 - Cihang Ma