Madelyn Chung
EIC and Founder of RepresentASIAN Project

Madelyn Chung is a multidisciplinary creative, speaker and registered psychotherapist with a focus on supporting the Asian North American community.

She is the founder of The RepresentASIAN Project, the leading Canadian media platform catering to the Asian North American diaspora, and The Blossom Mental Health Fund, a registered non-profit dedicated to supporting the mental health of Asian Canadians. Madelyn has previously worked at HuffPost Canada, FASHION and Netflix Editorial, where she was part of the core team that launched @netflixgolden, a social channel catered to the Asian diaspora.

In 2021, she was named one of Bay Street Bull’s Women of the Year and in 2023, she was listed among View the Vibe’s POWER 60: Inspiring Asian-Canadians of Influence. Through her writing, advocacy and therapy work, Madelyn is committed to empowering and uplifting the Asian North American community.

Jeff Yang
Author

Jeff Yang has been observing, exploring, and writing about the Asian American community for over thirty years. He launched one of the first Asian American national magazines, A. Magazine, in the late nineties and early 2000s, and now writes frequently for CNN, New York Times, and elsewhere.

He has authored three books—Jackie Chan’s New York Times bestselling memoir I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action; Once Upon a Time in China, a history of the cinemas of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Mainland; and Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture, and most recently coauthored the New York Times bestselling RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Shehrezade Mian
Film Producer

Shehrezade Mian (she/her) is a Pakistani producer based in Toronto. Mian is an alumnus of the TIFF-Netflix Talent Accelerator, the European Audio-Visual Entrepreneurs EAVE Producers Program presented by the NSI and CMF, and the WIFT mentorship program with the SVP of VICE Media. Mian is also a two time recipient of the competitive Telefilm Talent To Watch program. Her feature film Concrete Valley by Antoine Bourges made its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and its international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival 2023. Founder of Markhor Pictures, in 2022 Mian launched Markhor Mentorships, a tailored mentorship program for emerging South Asian filmmakers in Canada. As a well-connected member of the Pakistani film and television industry, Mian frequently acts as an international liaison between the two countries. Shehrezade also recently served as the development and production manager at Hawkeye Pictures, Brother (2022).

Fawzia Mirza
Director/Writer

Fawzia Mirza (she/they) co-wrote & starred in the feature Signature Move which world premiered at SXSW, won 15 awards (including the US Grand Jury Prize Outfest) and starred Indian film legend Shabana Azmi. Her feature script Heirloom was named to the 2022 Muslim List, published by The Black List. She’s written for TV, executive produced documentaries and her award-winning short films have screened all over the world. Her feature directorial debut The Queen of My Dreams (supported by TIFF’s Writer Studio & Filmmaker Lab) world premiered at TIFF with its international premier at the BFI London Film Festival and was nominated for the Director’s Guild of Canada’s Jean-Marc Vallée Discovery Award.

Zarrar Kahn
Director, Screenwriter

Zarrar Kahn (he/him) is a Pakistani-Canadian film director and screenwriter, whose debut feature film In Flames premiered at the 2023 Cannes and TIFF Film Festivals. He directed a number of short films in the late 2010s and early 2020s, earning a reputation as one of the most exciting new Pakistani filmmakers, before making In Flames. He is an alumnus of the TIFF Talent Lab, Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Open Doors Locarno, Asian Film Academy and Director’s Lab program at the Canadian Film Centre. His works have been screened and awarded in over 100+ film festivals worldwide, including TIFF, Locarno, and BFI London. 

Aeyliya Husain
Filmmaker

Aeyliya Husain is an award-winning filmmaker. Her films have also screened at San Francisco Docfest; Glasgow Short Film Festival and São Paulo Film Festival and have been broadcast on CBC, BBC, Arte, The Documentary Channel, SBS Australia, amongst others. Her latest documentary, An Unfinished Journey, that follows four Afghan former MPs who fled their country for a new life in Canada, for CBC, Arte/France and ERT/Greece.

Ngardy Conteh George
Filmmaker

Hailing from Sierra Leone and raised in Canada, Ngardy Conteh George is an award-winning filmmaker dedicated to amplifying the voices of systematically excluded communities, particularly those representing the African Diaspora.

Her work includes 5-part docu-series ‘Black Community Mixtapes’ recently broadcast on Citytv, ‘Mr. Jane and Finch’ (CBC), winner of two Canadian Screen Awards in 2020, and feature documentary ‘The Flying Stars’. She is currently producing two feature documentaries with OYA Media Group, a production company she co-founded with Alison Duke.

Tiffany Hsiung
Filmmaker

Tiffany Hsiung (she/her) is a Peabody award-winning filmmaker and a two-time Canadian Screen Award winner based in Toronto, Canada. Her film Sing Me a Lullaby (2020) won the Oscar qualifying Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC and the inaugural Toronto International Film Festival ‘Share Her Journey Short Cuts Award’ during the world premiere at TIFF.

Sing Me a Lullaby went on to winning The Directors Guild of Canada Best Short Film Award followed by several accolades including two prizes at the annual WIFT- Showcase and listed as one of TIFF Canada’s Top Ten of 2020.

Hsiung’s debut feature documentary The Apology (2016) received over 15 international awards that includes the prestigious Peabody award, the DuPont Columbia Award and the Allan King Memorial Award. Hsiung’s work has played in over 150 film festivals earning over 25 awards, released and broadcasted globally.

Hsiung currently sits as second-vice chair of the Directors Guild of Canada, Ontario Executive Board, she is board member at DOC Canada – Ontario and HOT DOCS executive board. Hsiung is also a member of the National BIPOC committee for the DGC.

Amar Wala
Filmmaker

Amar Wala (he/him) is a Toronto based filmmaker known for his arresting visual style and empowering brand of storytelling. His award-winning works include his debut feature doc The Secret Trial 5 (‘14), which was named one of the Top Ten Docs of the Decade by Realscreen Magazine, Superfan: The Nav Bhatia Story (‘22), and the recent doc series Witness, which he created and produced.

Amar is a CSA nominee, and the recipient of the prestigious Vanguard Award from the DOC Institute. A staunch advocate for other BIPOC artists, Amar is also co-founder of the REMC (Racial Equity Media Collective).

Samir Ballou
Industry and Education Programmer, Reel Asian

Samir is a film festival programmer, educator, and screenwriter based in Toronto. Currently, he is the Industry and Education programmer at Reel Asian, where he continues his efforts to strengthen the inclusion of Asian Canadian filmmakers in the media industry.

Léa Geronimo
Writer-Director

Léa Geronimo (they/she) is a Franco-Québécois, Filipino-Caucasian writer-director raised in a small town near Montreal.

Before working in television, Léa was a stage actor, then moved into writing & directing short films. They’ve been selected to many competitive programs with BIPOC TV&FILM, WIDC, Netflix, Reelworld, and more. Léa’s also earned a WGC Award nomination for their work on the Peabody Award-winning series, Sort Of (CBC, MAX). Léa is thrilled to take part in this year’s Reel Asian International Film Festival.

Kara Harun
Writer, producer, host

Kara Harun is a two-time Canadian Screen Award nominee for her work as a writer, producer, and host for TVOKids, The Space. Kara has written for children’s shows such as Dino Dana (Sinking Ship/TVO), It’s My Party (Bristow Global Media/TVO), Pollinators (TVO), and Denis and Me II and Ill (Crave, Family). In the tween space, she wrote for My Perfect Landing, a tween dramedy that airs on Family Channel, Netflix, and CBBC and BYU tv. Kara was a co-producer on Beyond Black Beauty, a drama series for IMDB TV/ Amazon. Kara worked as writer/producer/director of YTV’s The Zone Weekend and Big Fun Movies. Kara recently directed episodes Abroad I and II, a diverse sketch comedy show about the immigrant experience, which began airing on Omni in Spring of 2022. Kara’s feature directorial debut, a thriller titled Dying for Admission, will be released later in 2023. Kara is currently showrunning Aunty B’s House, a preschool sitcom for CBC Kids about the foster care system in Canada.

Angelica Mendizabal
Screenwriter, Director

Angelica Mendizabal is a TV writer based in Toronto, Canada. She draws on her experience growing up in a remote village in the Philippines and her subsequent immigration to Toronto to write stories about family, new identities and ambition.

Angelica is a Writer and Executive Story Editor on season three of Run the Burbs (CBC). In the past, she has written on Moonshine, Overlord & The Underwoods and Topline. She is also a Co-Producer on the recently announced Wattpad/CBC series “Near or Far”. Angelica is currently in development on a half hour comedy with marblemedia and a YA series with 9Story.

JP Larocque
Producer, Screenwriter

They are the creator and executive producer of the digital comedy series Gay Nerds on OUTtv. The Globe and Mail listed them among “the 25 most influential in Canadian television.”

As a journalist, JP has bylines in Maclean’s, The Walrus, The Toronto Star, Flare, This Magazine,  Xtra, and The Beaverton, with additional work in the anthologies City Voices: A Book of Monologues by Toronto Artists (2012), and The Secret Loves of Geeks (2018).

In 2023, alongside creatives Sara Peters, Shakil Jessa and Misha Solomon, JP co-founded Queering The Screen, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring workplace equity and safety for 2SLGBTQIA+ members of the Canadian screen industry.

Vivek Shraya
Artist, Creator

Vivek Shraya (she/her) is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, TV, film, and fashion.

She is the creator and writer of the new CBC Gem Original Series How to Fail as a Popstar, a Canadian Screen Awardwinner, and a Polaris Music Prize nominee. Her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel,” and she is the founder of the award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books, which supports emerging BIPOC writers.

Vivek has been a brand ambassador for MAC Cosmetics and Pantene, and she is a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation.

Vanessa Matsui
Director, Executive Producer

Vanessa Matsui (she/her) is a director-actor-writer and Midnight At The Paradise is her debut feature which has just been acquired by Paramount+. She is alumnae of the Sundance New Voices Lab where she developed the second season of her critically acclaimed hit web series Ghost BFF, which she created, wrote, directed for, and starred in.

Over two seasons, Ghost BFF was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards including Best Digital Series and two nominations for Vanessa as an actor, it screened at festivals globally where it has won multiple awards including Best Web Series at the LA International Femme Film Festival.

She is currently serving as Executive Producer and series director for Sphere Media’s new series How To Fail As A Pop Star created by Vivek Shraya. She is also a guest director for Son Of A Critch (CBC, Paramount UK).

Ayesha Mansur Gonsalves
Actor

Ayesha Mansur Gonsalves (she/her) is a Canadian actress, born and raised in Toronto. She started her professional career as a dancer, training at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City.

After years of performing and creating in Toronto and New York, Ayesha graduated with a film degree from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College, after which she turned her attention to the craft of acting. She’s been on screens in the US and Canada ever since.

Liem Vu
Host

Liem Vu (he/him) is a journalist with over 10 years of multi-platform experience. He can be seen weekdays on Global News Morning as a co-host and weather specialist.

Aram Siu Wai Collier
Artistic Director, Reel Asian Film Festival

Aram (he/him) is a filmmaker, educator, and film festival programmer. He is currently the Artistic Director at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.

Maya Bastian
Filmmaker

Maya Bastian (she/they) is an award winning filmmaker and artist. Her work has been supported by Netflix, HBO, UN IOM, CBC and the Canadian Film Centre. Her most recent film Tigress participated at CANNES COURT METRAGE 2021 and premiered at Festival De Nouveau Cinema.

She is in development on multiple features with BLACKOUT MEDIA and KARMA FILMS and is currently co-writing and directing a paranormal mystery series set in 1970’s Southeast Asia with REFLECTOR ENTERTAINMENT. She is an alumni of TIFF Series Accelerator 2023 with her comedy series How to be Brown. Her work frequently explores the trauma related to displacement and migration.

Jay Carolyn Wu
Writer-Director, Development Exec

Jay Carolyn Wu (they/them) is a queer/non-binary Hong Kong-Canadian writer/director and development exec. Their most recent short Toe the Line screened at Inside Out Toronto 2022, Vancouver Asian Film Festival 2021, and was nominated for the Golden Sheaf for Scripted Short, Yorkton Film Festival 2022.

As a development exec, they also developed scripted originals across both comedy and drama for Crave and CTV at Bell Media from 2021 to 2023. They now lead the development of series and features at LaRue Entertainment.

Giran Findlay
Director, Writer

Giran Findlay (he/him) is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker, who writes and directs narrative dramas that use elements of both documentary and surrealism. He is interested in telling stories that raise questions about human nature and using unconventional techniques to achieve this.

Lina Li
Producer

Lina Li (she/her) is a storyteller who cares deeply for authentic human connections and the exploration of vulnerability through heart-to-heart dialogues. She aims to bridge her audience closer or simply help one feel less alienated through the resonance of human emotions and experiences.

Her short film Have You Eaten? navigates the generational, cultural and language barriers between a mother and a daughter in an immigrant family. It was commissioned and produced by the National Film Board of Canada, and licensed and featured on The New Yorker. Li has been working as a freelance producer on short films and ad campaigns for international brands such as KPMG and DECIEM The Ordinary.

Hannah Polinski
Co-Director, Producer

Hannah Polinski (she/her) is a writer and filmmaker currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Using the lens of Asian identity, her work explores familial memory, shifting landscapes, and feminine sexuality. Her first film, perennials, premiered at Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival (2022).

From poetry to film criticism, her writing has appeared in publications such as the White Wall Review and Ricepaper Magazine. As a playwright and theatre director, her original works have been performed on stage in France, and most recently at the Montreal Fringe Festival (2023).

Dédé Chen
Co-Director, Editor, Cinematographer

Born in Nanchang, China, Dédé Chen (she/her) now lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal where she creates works about the performance of filiation. As a filmmaker, writer and anthropologist, she is interested in autoethnography.

Kay Chan
Director, Producer, Writer, Lead Animator

Kay Chan (They/He/She) is a Two-Spirit/nonbinary Tkaronto-based artist who was raised across Turtle Island/Canada. With their mixed Métis-Chinese heritage, Kay transforms their many experiences, passions, and identities into vision while weaving together traditional and digital art mediums they have accessible.

Gordon Tomoya de Groot
Director

Gordon Tomoya De Groot (he/him) is a Japanese-Canadian filmmaker born in Osaka and based in Toronto. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA in Cinema Studies.

With his short films, he is interested in exploring the underlying loneliness in people’s lives and how that manifests in their interactions with each other. Having grown up in Japan, his work often touches on the intricacies of Japanese society and the moral dilemmas within it that push and pull at individuals.

Miru Yogarajah
Director, Writer

Miru Yogarajah(they/them) is a documentary filmmaker, writer, community organizer, and artist. Miru aims to showcase the multifaceted experiences of being a person on the margins and the delicate and intimate experiences they host alongside survival.

Their film works have been produced by National Film Board of Canada and they received the 2022 Hot Docs Cross Current Fund to develop their feature-length documentary Im/migrant Buyers’ Club. They have written contributions to The Local and West End Phoenix, among others.

Kristina Wong
Producer

Kristina Wong (she/her) is a film producer who strives to tells stories that reimagine the Asian-Canadian experience. Her work includes the short films Distant Cousins (Dir. Winnie Jong) and Gem & Shaz (Dir. Chloé Hung).

Currently, she is producing the Talent to Watch feature 100 SUNSETS and adapting Ann Hui’s celebrated novel Chop Suey Nation into a hybrid feature film. Most notably, Kristina was named one of Playback Magazine’s “10 Filmmakers to Watch”.

Nedda Sarshar
Filmmaker

Nedda Sarshar (she/her) is an Iranian-Canadian writer and filmmaker. Her first short film, Rachel and Raha, premiered at the Canadian Film Festival, and won Best Short Film at the Toronto LGBT Film Festival and Best LGBT Short Film at the Toronto Short Film Festival. Her second short, Unibrow, was a recipient of Reel Asian’s “So You Think You Can Pitch” Contest.

Her writing has been featured in Best Canadian Poetry, Huffington Post Canada, and the Rumpus. She enjoys writing about diasporas and star-crossed lovers.

Min Sook Lee
Filmmaker and DOC Ontario Board Member

Min Sook Lee has directed numerous critically-acclaimed documentaries, including: Donald Brittain Gemini winner Tiger Spirit, Hot Docs Best Canadian Feature winner Hogtown, Canadian Screen Award winner, The Real Inglorious Bastards. Her doc Migrant Dreams which told the story of migrant farm workers fighting for justice was awarded Best Labour Documentary by the Canadian Journalists Association and garnered the prestigious Canadian Hillman Prize which honours journalists whose work identifies important social and economic issues in Canada. 

Min Sook is an Associate Professor at OCAD University, her area of research and filmmaking focuses on counter hegemonic narratives of resistance and feminist working-class cultural praxis for a world that centres justice, equity and humanity.

Joan Jenkinson
Executive Director, Black Screen Office (BSO)

Joan Jenkison is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Black Screen Office where she works to empower Black Canadians working within the screen industries to thrive and share their stories. She is committed to making sector practices and policies equitable and free of anti-Black racism, and to work collaboratively with decision-makers to ensure system-level change. Joan is a founding Partner/Producer at Artemis Pictures which is focused on developing and producing scripted content for television and the cinema, for international audiences. Joan was Vice-President of Independent Production for ZoomerMedia Limited, Television Division. She commissioned, developed and executive produced hundreds of hours of award-winning creative content in all genres for VisionTV. Joan spearheaded VisionTV’s ground-breaking DiverseTV/NSI initiative which produced award-winning comedy and drama programs and earned her a Visionary Award from the ReelWorld Film Festival.

For five years, Joan served as Executive Director of Women in Film and Television – Toronto (WIFT-T), where she established professional development training and networking opportunities for women in screen-based media.

Lisa Valencia-Svensson
Executive Director, Racial Equity Media Collective (REMC)

Lisa is an Emmy award winning and Academy Award shortlisted producer and Managing Director of the Racial Equity Media Collective. She was previously the Acting Industry Programs Director at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Before that she was Head of Operations at Multitude Films. Credits include PRAY AWAY, ALWAYS IN SEASON, CALL HER GANDA, HERMAN’S HOUSE, MIGRANT DREAMS and THE WORLD BEFORE HER.

Kadon Douglas
Executive Director, BIPOC TV & FILM

A storyteller and community connector at heart, Kadon Douglas is the inaugural executive director at BIPOC TV & Film. Kadon is an experienced not-for-profit professional specializing in community engagement, marketing, and communications. Previously, she led communications and membership engagement strategies and advocated for gender equity in screen-based media at Women in Film & Television-Toronto (WIFT-T).

Kadon also worked for several years in the documentary production field as a production coordinator, researcher, and digital marketing/audience engagement specialist. She is a two-time fellow of the Hot Docs Film Festival: Doc Accelerator (2013) and Shaw Media Diverse Voices (2015); and is a 2019 Ontario Nonprofit Network RBC Leading the Future fellow. Kadon is also an active member of the screen-based media community, volunteering her time on various committees and juries, and is the former chair of the Reelworld Film Festival.

Sally Lee
Executive Director, Canadian Independent Screen Fund for BPOC creators (CISF)

In addition to serving as Executive Director of the Canadian Independent Screen Fund for BPOC creators, Sally is on the boards of the CONTACT Photography Festival and Wavelength Music. She is a member of the Advisory at Reel Asian, where she served as ED for three festivals. She also led artists rights group CARFAC Ontario as ED and has variously held leadership, staff, board, and advisory positions at TIFF, Soulpepper Theatre, Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, Images Festival, Coalition of Canadian Independent Media Arts Distributors (VUCAVU.com), Workman Arts (RWM Festival), Toronto Arts Council Visual and Media Arts Committee, and Access Copyright.

Anupa Mistry
Producer, Writer

Anupa Mistry is a writer and producer, and partner at Scenario Media in Toronto. For a decade she worked as a music critic, editor, and occasional talking head with The FADER, Pitchfork, and Red Bull Music Academy. As a filmmaker she looks for stories at the intersection of radical history, culture, and human ingenuity.

Aliya Kanani
Actor, Comedian, Writer

Aliya is a Toronto-based comedian, actor and writer. Her solo show, “Where You From, From?”, sold out at festivals internationally, including Just for Laughs, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and World Fringe. 

Her first role in a feature film, Scarborough, got her nominated for a Canadian Screen award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress. Her second role in film Concrete Valley, just premiered at TIFF.

She has written for the sketch tv-series, Abroad and her web series, Juicy. 

Jasmin Mozaffari
Writer, Director

Jasmin Mozaffari is an award-winning film & television writer/director. Her debut feature, FIRECRACKERS, premiered at TIFF in 2018. In 2019, Jasmin took home the award for Best Director at the Canadian Screen Awards and FIRECRACKERS was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Jasmin has branched out into directing television for networks like Netflix, HULU, Global, CBC, as well as commercials and music videos. She most recently directed the pilot for the Netflix series FAKES, and also completed 2 episodes of ROBYN HOOD, created by Director X.

Albert Shin
Filmmaker (Timelapse Pictures)

Albert Shin is a Korean-Canadian filmmaker based out of Toronto, Canada.

Alia Ceniza Rasul
Comedian, Tita Collective

Alia Ceniza Rasul is an award-winning Filipina artist based in Toronto. She is the current artistic director of Bad Dog Theatre and is a member of the Tita Collective. Her work centres the narratives of the Filipin* diaspora. She has recently published her first collection of poetry “Super Important Filipina Thoughts” and has come off a sold-out run of her debut solo show “Moro Girl”  which won the Patron’s Pick at the 2022 Toronto Fringe.

Franco Nguyen
Comedian, Writer, Actor

Franco Nguyen is one of the co-creators, writers and stars of TallBoyz. He is a Bob Curry Fellow, and was a cast member of the Second City Touring Company Toronto and the Bad Dog Featured Players. His critically acclaimed one-person show “GOOD MORNING VIET MOM” had sold-out runs at the Toronto Fringe Festival, the Next Stage Festival and was picked up by Cahoots Theatre for a cross-country tour. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, CBC’s Exhibitionist and Thời Báo Media (hay quá!). You can watch him now on the third season of the award-winning series TallBoyz (CBC), as the voice of Allan on Uprooted: The Plantdemic (CBC GEM), and the reboot of the Kids in the Hall (Amazon). Franco lives in Toronto with his wonderful partner Thao, his toddler son Felix, and his soon to arrive daughter (name: TBD).

Rob Michaels
Writer, Director, Actor

Rob Michaels is an Iraqi-Canadian writer, actor, and director. He has written for Roku’s original series Children Ruin Everything, CTV’s Roast Battle Canada, the mobile game for the FXX series Archer, and has his own project in development. He also recently directed his first feature film with Vortex Media. He has performed with The Second City, and his sketch comedy channel Wishful Genies has amassed millions of views through features on Funny Or Die, 9GAG, CBC Comedy, and Al Jazeera. 

Celeste Yim
Writer, Comedian

Celeste is a staff writer for Saturday Night Live. Celeste was a 2021 Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow and the 2019 recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Canadian Women Artists’ Award for Playwriting.

Celeste is an alumnus of the National MFA Playwrights Festival produced by Theater Masters and the Bob Curry Fellowship at The Second City Toronto. Celeste is a member of the Television Academy, The Writers Guild of America, and The Dramatists Guild of America.

Celeste received a B.A. from the University of Toronto and an M.F.A. from Tisch School of the Arts.

Celeste uses they/them pronouns.