Peter knegt

Peter Knegt is a writer, filmmaker and arts curator.

He began his career as a film journalist, writing for Variety, Salon, Xtra, Film Quarterly and, most notably, Indiewire, where he was a writer and editor from 2006 to 2015. At Indiewire, he profiled the likes of David Cronenberg, Snoop Dogg, Xavier Dolan, Michael Fassbender, Tom Ford, Werner Herzog, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Madonna, Steve McQueen, John Cameron Mitchell, David Sedaris, Trent Reznor, Winona Ryder and Tilda Swinton.

In 2011, Knegt co-founded Picton Picturefest, a film festival and "cinephile retreat" that focuses on the idea of film as a method of both community building and youth education. The festival — inspired by Knegt’s experience at Tilda Swinton's A Pilgrimage — received considerable attention, with The Toronto Star calling it "the next stop on Canada's film festival circuit." Swinton herself programmed the opening night film.

His first book, a historical account of Canadian LGBTQ communities, was released in September, 2011 through Fernwood Publishing and continues to be taught at universities across Canada. It was received well both critically and commercially, which resulted with Knegt on the cover of Xtra! — Canada's most widely distributed LGBTQ magazine — in a story heralding Knegt as "Canada's new gay voice."

Knegt made his acting debut in 2012, co-starring in Travis Mathews' sexually explicit I Want Your Love, an experience that Knegt chronicled in an essay that first appeared on Salon and was later anthologized in Best Gay Stories 2013. In 2013, he was the recipient of a Queer/Art/Mentorship fellowship and named among "11 Amazing Young Queer Artists You Should Know" by The Advocate.

In 2014, Knegt began writing, directing and acting in a series of his own short films that have screened at dozens of film festivals around the world: "Good Morning" (2014), "Are You There Joy? It's Me, Jennifer" (2016), "Plus One" (2017), "A Bed Day" (2017) and “Say Uncle” (2022).

In 2016, he began working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a writer, producer and host for CBC Arts. Some of his work there included writing the weekly LGBTQ culture column Queeries (2017-24) spearheading the creation of the series The Filmmakers (2017-18), Canada's a Drag (2018-present) and Superqueeroes (2019) and co-hosting talk show State of the Arts with Amanda Parris and Romeo Candido (2017-18).

Knegt’s work with CBC has won him many awards. Queeries won a Digital Publishing Award for best column in Canada, and was nominated again in 2022 and 2024. In 2020 and 2021, he won four Canadian Screen Awards, two for his work producing Canada's a Drag and one each for Superqueeroes and The 2010s: The Decade Canadian Artists Stopped Saying Sorry.

In 2022, he launched the film screening series Queer Cinema Club, which he curates and hosts at Toronto’s Paradise Theatre. That same year, he began hosting the CBC series Here & Queer, which celebrates and amplifies the work of LGBTQ artists though unfiltered conversations.

Queer Cinema Club celebrated its 2nd anniversary in April 2024, while a month later Here & Queer won Knegt his fifth Canadian Screen Award.