Talent

Adam Pottle is a Deaf writer whose works span multiple genres. His books include the memoir Voice and the award-winning novels Mantis Dreams and The Bus. His groundbreaking play The Black Drum was performed in Toronto and France and is the world's first Deaf musical. In 2021-22, he was the Writer in Residence at Sheridan College, and his most recent novel, titled Apparitions, is currently being shopped. He began branching out into film and television in 2018, when his unproduced feature film script People of Merrit was nominated for and received several festival awards, including Best Screenplay at the Canadian Diversity Film Festival. He continues to hone his scripts, hoping to one day direct his own projects. He lives in Saskatoon with his wife Deborah and their goldendoodle Valkyrie.

Aisha Evelyna is passionate about bringing stories of the underrepresented to the forefront of our social consciousness. She is an actor, filmmaker, and producer. Aisha is developing her feature debut Seahorse alongside co-director Natalie Novak Remplakowski. The project is a participant of the 2022 CaribbeanTales Black Incubator and Studio Access program. In addition to being a 2021 Whistler Film Festival Screenwriters Lab alum, Aisha also won the Cayle Chernin Award for Media Arts, and the Toronto Arts Council Media Arts Grant for short film Alex which she wrote, directed and starred in. She is also a recipient of the IPF Production Fund for The Drop, created alongside co-creator Dani Pagliarello. When not making films, she programs them at Reelworld Film Festival. When not dreaming about films, Aisha can be found eating donuts in Toronto.

Audrey Béland is an author, screenwriter, director, inclusion trainer, and living room activist born in Montreal. After her baccalaureate in communication and modern letters at La Sorbonne in Paris, she obtained a certificate in cinematographic screenwriting at UQAM, and a documentary and fiction screenwriting diploma from L’inis. She wrote her first documentary entitled I'm Not a Racist, I Have A Black Friend and her first web series "The Revenge of Snowflakes”.

She is writing and developing several projects produced by various Montreal media production companies including Duo Productions, Peripheria, KOTV, and Urbania. She is also a trainer for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ communities for a non-profit organization (Interligne), in addition to working as an assistant director, researcher, and script supervisor for television. In 2022, she started a writing residence at La Licorne Theater. She is a member of the board of directors for Réalisatrices Équitables.

Darcy Waite, founder of Turtle Mountain Media, is one of Canada’s fastest rising producers and content creators. Darcy recently joined the Board of Directors of the CMPA. As a writer and director, Darcy focuses on comedy. He was a director shadow on APTN’s sketch comedy series Caution May Contain Nuts season 4. In 2018 Darcy’s script Zombies Don’t Eat Stupid People was selected for the Whistler Film Festivals Indigenous Filmmaker Fellowship Program and the 2021 NSI Series Incubator Program. Darcy’s web series DJ Burnt Bannock, which he created, wrote, and starred in, produced by Eagle Vision, premiered in spring of 2022 on APTN’s Lumi platform. Additionally, Darcy’s first feature Lucky Strikes was selected for the 2022 ImagineNATIVE Institute Screenwriting Feature Lab. Darcy is also the host of APTN’s first-ever gameshow, Bull’s Eye, and the host of Eagle Vision’s upcoming factual series 7th Gen. Darcy previously hosted two seasons of ATPNs hit youth series That's AWSM.

Gorrman Lee is a Chinese-Canadian screenwriter and producer based in Vancouver. His credits include writing for Netflix's The Imperfects (also serving as Co-Producer), The Order, and Syfy's Van Helsing, after getting started by working with the writers and story rooms of Netflix's Altered Carbon, Another Life, and Showcase's Continuum. His first feature film, Golden Delicious, was awarded a Telefilm Talent to Watch grant and will be released in 2022. He is a fellow of the 2021 BIPOC TV & Film Showrunner Training Bootcamp, and the 2014 Writers Guild of Canada & Bell Media's Diverse Screenwriters Program. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and a BFA in Filmmaking from Simon Fraser University.

lindsey addawoo (she/her) is an award-winning writer from Toronto.

Her short film, Queen of Hearts (2018), won the 2017 Inside Out Film Festival BravoFACT award. Prior to this, she was inducted into the BlackWomenFilm! Leadership Program (2016). She co-wrote Promise Me (2020), a short film that won the Standout Short Film Writer Award at Reelworld Film Festival where she was also an E20 participant (2020).

In the past, she has worked as a script coordinator on CBC’s Street Legal (2019) and both story coordinator and writer on CBC/The CW’s Coroner (2021-2022). She is an alumna of BIPOC TV & Film’s inaugural Episodic Drama Writing Lab (2021) and Showrunner Bootcamp (2022).

Currently, she is a story editor on Director X’s upcoming show, Robyn Hood (Boat Rocker/Corus), and a lead writer on an animated children’s show for PBS.

She also has some pretty dope projects in development, so stay tuned.

Mily Mumford (they/them) is a writer and director in film and theatre. They are passionate about advancing diverse voices in sci-fi and genre media, and ensuring diverse creators have key creative roles in their own stories.

They have written over fifteen short and full length works that have been produced for the stage and recent film works include the short films Gemini (2018, Cannes Short Film Corner, London Sci-Fi Festival +15 festivals) Operation Gingham (Winner of Best Film at Vancouver Quarantine Performance Project, 2020), First Bite (2018, Winner Best Film Circus Short Film Contest, Best Film East Van Showcase) and Marsha’s Knitting Club. They are a part of the Playwright’s Theatre Centre (Vancouver) Associate’s Program for mid-career playwrights for 2021-2024 with their play in development It Lives in My Bedroom. In addition to creative work they hold a BSc. in Neuroscience and an MSc. in Interactive Technology.

Mitchell LeBlanc is a Canadian screenwriter, director, and narrative designer based in Toronto. His path to filmmaking is a long and winding one weaving through a brief stint in seminary, a crisis of faith, studies in philosophy, and years of performing improv comedy to audiences across North America.

Unbeknownst to him, Mitch’s enduring fandom of the macabre would lead him to craft his own horror and science-fiction stories. Those early screenplays placed Top 10% in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship and Top 5 at the Canadian Film Festival. His directorial debut short film MELODY also screened at the 2020 Videodrunk Film Festival as part of their Canadiana Horror Show.

Currently, Mitch has a sci-fi feature project (ATOM) in development at a major U.S. studio. Here at home, he’s writing/directing a horror feature for Vortex Productions. When not writing, he balances being a professor in the Faculty of Media & Performing Arts at George Brown College and recommending Criterion films to non-cinephiles.

Native Montrealer, Sam Ruano, is a Guatemalan Canadian screenwriter who has written on a wide variety of award-winning shows including Odd Squad: Mobile Unit, Killjoys and Lost Girl to name a few. After completing his B.F.A at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Sam’s first foray into television was as a videographer on the eco-adventure travel show Exploring Horizons for Discovery Travel.

He went on to work as a production coordinator with The National Film Board of Canada before attending the Canadian Film Centre’s Prime Time Television Writing Program and soon after, the Bell Media Diverse Screenwriters program. A love of comedy drew Sam to perform with Second City’s improvisational conservatory as well as with their educational troupe. He is currently developing a new TV series with celebrated YA Author, Jeff Norton.

Vanessa Magic is a screenwriter, director and filmmaker whose practice is rooted in Afrosurrealism and Afrofuturism. The recipient of several Canada Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council grants. Her short film Oneironautic was an official selection at the Cannes Short Film Festival, Victoria Film Festival, and the Reelworld Film Festival, where she was nominated for Standout Writer and Director.

She has written for Momolu (Yellow Animation), The Game Savers (Banger) and recently story-edited a Canadian Heritage Minute about Jackie Shane (Historica). In addition, she directed an episode of True Dating Stories (LaRue/CBC Gem), Alter Egos (B-sides) and currently is the Writer's Assistant for Pretty Hard Cases (CBC/NBCU). She is in post for her latest short, The Absurdity of The Black Female Experience, and is in pre-production for her next film, The Future Above Us.