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.

Shreya Patel
Actress, Filmmaker, Producer (Window Dreams Productions)

Model-turned-actress and filmmaker, Shreya Patel is the honoree of the Forbes 30 Under 30, Top 100 Most Powerful Women of Canada, and Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award. Her debut documentary, ‘Girl Up’, about domestic human trafficking, was partnered with Toronto International Film Festival and the Civic Action Summit. Her viral music video directorial debut, Freedom Dance has over 1.2 million views on YouTube. During COVID, she gathered 66 countries and made a documentary called Unity- #LOVESPREADS Faster Than Virus showcasing the plight of the human spirit. Currently, she is working on a comedy series, Layla is Relevant, as well as writing a film about trafficking.

Rua Wani
Producer and Co-President, Adani Pictures

Shant Joshi
President, Executive Producer, Fae Pictures

Shant Joshi is president and executive producer at Fae Pictures, an award-winning media company based in Los Angeles and Toronto on a mission to decolonize Hollywood. Credits include Framing Agnes (Sundance), International Dawn Chorus Day (Berlin), Diaspora (TIFF), Scaring Women at Night (TIFF), and I’m Fine (Outfest). The company is in post-production on 2 features and 1 series, set to premiere in 2023 and are developing projects in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, India, and Pakistan. Shant is Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for BIPOC TV & Film and sits on the Restructuring, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Committee at the Canadian Media Producers Association.

Priscilla Galvez
Producer and Co-Founder, Silent Tower Inc

Priscilla Galvez is a Toronto-based filmmaker, producer and co-founder of her production company Silent Tower. Her producing career launched with the short THE DROP IN, directed by Naledi Jackson, which premiered at TIFF ’17. Recently, she produced the feature film, ISLANDS, directed by Martin Edralin, which was a SXSW ’21 award winner for Best Breakthrough Performance. She is a fellowship recipient of the TIFF Accelerator Lab ‘20 and was nominated for the CMPA Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award ’22 for her work on ISLANDS.

Lillian Chan
Animation Filmmaker

Lillian Chan is an animation filmmaker who loves to doodle. Past projects include the award-winning children’s film Jaime Lo, Small and Shy (NFB, 2007), an educational short for TEDed, and a VR prototype for the CFC Medialab. Her commercial clients include DisneyXD, Nelvana, Guru Studios and Mozilla. She often works with her composer husband, John Poon, making mostly silly content for kids, of which they have two.

Betty Xie
Filmmaker

Betty Xie is a Chinese Canadian director, producer and writer. Her works range from documentary, fiction, and animation. She has previously worked on projects that were funded by Telefilm and CBC, and her films played internationally in festivals. In January 2022, she launched the CBC Gem digital animated series Uprooted: The Plantemic, which she wrote and directed.

Joyce Hui aka ``rurupoi``
Art Director

Joyce Hui (aka “rurupoi”) is a Chinese Canadian art director, illustrator, and designer based in Burlington, Ontario. She received her master’s degree from the University of Toronto Biomedical Communications program, and has over a decade of experience telling science stories through award-winning interactive installations, animations, and illustrations. Uprooted: the Plantemic marks her first foray into animation for entertainment. When her professional hat is off, Joyce can be found capturing everyday moments in her sketchbook, hiking on nature trails, and making indie games. She can also be found tending to her many houseplants.

Andrea Bang
Actress, Screenwriter

Andrea Bang was born and raised in Burnaby, B.C. She is best known for playing Janet on CBC’s KIM’s CONVENIENCE, which has earned her multiple Canadian Screen Award nominations for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. Her film credits LUCE, opposite Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer, and FRESH, opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan both premiered at Sundance Film Festival. She also starred in STAY THE NIGHT which premiered at this year’s SXSW. Coming up next, she stars in the Lionsgate feature, DEAR DAVID, as well as FLOAT. In television, Andrea currently guest stars in the ABC drama, A MILLION LITTLE THINGS.

Aside from acting, Andrea continues to write, make videos, and watch way too much TV. She is represented by The Characters Talent Agency, and Authentic Talent and Literary Management.