Kid Koala

Kid Koala is a Montreal-based scratch DJ, film composer, theatre producer and visual artist. He has released 5 solo albums, and contributed to several feature film soundtracks including The Great Gatsby, Looper, Baby Driver and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He has toured with the likes of Radiohead, Deltron 3030 and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band. He has written and illustrated the award-winning graphic novels Nufonia Must Fall and Space Cadet. He is known for his imaginative live productions such as Vinyl Vaudeville, Satellite Turntable Orchestra, and The Storyville Mosquito, each of which expresses his unique form of storytelling with music, animation, film and interactive entertainment.

Momo Yoshida

Momo is the founder and owner of Momo Tea, an online tea store based in Toronto. She selects high quality tea in her home country Japan and offers them at an affordable price in Canada.

Momo is a serious tea lover. She is Nihoncha(Japanese Tea) Adviser certified by Japan Tea Industry Central Association. She is also certified Tea Sommelier with George Brown College and Tea Association Canada.  She is a member of Tea Guild Canada. She belongs to the Urasenke school of Chanoyu (Tea Ceremony).

Lalita Krishna
Documentary Filmmaker

Lalita Krishna is a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker whose films have screened on all major networks, and won awards at major film festivals around the world.  Lalita is also the winner of the 2021 Hot Docs Don Haig award, the 2013 Crystal Award for mentorship given by WIFT(Women in Film and Television), the Trailblazer (2012) award given by the Reel World Film Festival and the Dream Catcher award from the Hope and Dreams Festival NJ, for using her craft to better humanity.

Yasmine Mathurin
Writer and Director

Yasmine Mathurin is a Haitian-Canadian award-winning writer & director. Her first feature documentary film ONE OF OURS premiered at Hot Docs in 2021 and won the Special Jury Prize and top 10 Audience choice and was nominated for 3 Canadian Screen Awards for best writing, best directing and best feature documentary. It is now available on CBC Gem and in the US through AMC+ and Sundance TV. She previously worked as an associate producer with CBC Original Podcast where her work has been awarded with a Webby people’s choice and a Canadian Digital Publishing Award.

She is an alumni of the Hot Docs Documentary Lab, RIDM lab, the Union Docs Feature documentary lab, the Berlinale Doc Toolbox program, DOC Breakthrough, TIFF CHANEL Women’s Writers Network, TIFF Writers Studio. Her work has been screened at several film festivals including, DocEdge, Hot Docs, RIDM and DOC NYC and Indie Memphis Film festival.

She recently produced and directed episodes in the CBC documentary series FOR THE CULTURE WITH AMANADA PARRIS. She is currently 1 of 8 directors selected in the 2023/2024 Women In the Director’s Chair Story & Leadership program. She is the recipient of the 2023 TIFF CBC Screenwriter Award for her upcoming fiction narrative feature film SORRY PARDON MADAME.

Shasha Nakhai
Filmmaker

Shasha Nakhai is a storyteller whose work has taken her to the Hawaiian coastline, the ski slopes of Davos, the Nevada desert, a Cold War bunker, the engine room of a decaying ship, Philippine sugar mills and the front lines of Nigeria’s energy crisis. Her work has aired on the BBC, CBC, ZDF, and Arte; screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); been nominated for 16 Canadian Screen Awards; named TIFF’s Top 10; and shortlisted for an Oscar.

With over a decade of experience in documentary, Shasha recently released her first drama feature with partner Rich Williamson – Scarborough, adapted from the award-winning novel by Catherine Hernandez. The film made its World Premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Shawn Mendes Foundation Changemaker Award, was 1st runner up for People’s Choice, and received an Honourable Mention for Best Canadian Feature.

Shasha is an alumna of TMU’s Journalism Program, Berlinale Toolbox, the DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program, Hot Docs Doc Accelerator, WIFT’s Ubisoft Toronto Mentorship, the Reel Asian First Feature Lab, and TIFF’s Talent Accelerator.

Soko Negash
Producer

Soko Negash is a Toronto-based producer dabbling in doc, scripted, podcasts, and lots in between. Some things she’s proud of: working on all four seasons of Netflix’s Emmy-winning Hip-Hop Evolution (Banger Films), production managing two barrier-breaking CBC Gem web series (Next Stop & Lido TV), and producing a doc series about viral videos (Witness with Scarborough Pictures) which premiered at Hot Docs and Doc NYC. She is currently in post-production on two feature films due to surface in late 2024 – Reza Dahya’s highly-anticipated Talent To Watch film Boxcutter, and award-winning director Amar Wala’s Shook. Soko is also an alumni of the Netflix/Hot Docs’ Doc Accelerator program, Black Screen Office Producer’s Program, Black Women Film! Canada, and RealScreen’s Pathways Mentorship program. Soko is a graduate of TMU’s School of Media, and of the multi-city arts incubator, The Remix Project.