The Market - Series Creators’ Lab

Eva Thomas is a writer, director, and producer. She co-directed and co-wrote Aberdeen, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. She directed episodes of CBC’s Still Standing, earning a 2024 Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction, Factual. Eva works on Acting Good (Bell Media, APTN) as a writer and director. Other writing credits include Don’t Even (Bell Media, APTN), Zarqa (CBC Gem), and Shelved (Bell Media). Eva was Associate Producer on Danis Goulet’s Night Raiders (TIFF ’22) and Executive Producer on Kaniehtiio Horn’s Seeds (TIFF ’24). Her directorial short film debut, Redlights, premiered at TIFF ’23 and is the inspiration for the feature film Nika & Madison (TIFF ’25).

Darren Anthony is a Toronto-based playwright and screenwriter. His acclaimed debut play, Secrets of a Black Boy, launched with a sold-out run at the Music Hall, toured the United States, and concluded on the main stage at Theatre Passe Muraille. Darren won the 2019 Telefilm Canada New Voices Award, with the Toronto Screenwriting Conference, for his family sitcom Dwayne Has Issues. The series was also selected for development through the NSI Totally Television Program and advanced to its final phase, with support from Kurt Smeaton (Children Ruin Everything), Eva Thomas (Nika and Madison), and CBC. Named one of Playback’s 10 To Watch in 2020, Darren later joined the 2022 Corus Apprentice Program. Most recently, he served as Executive Story Editor on Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story, a Paramount+ sports mockumentary created by Anthony Q. Farrell.

Rebecca See is a Canadian producer, director, writer, and actor, and the Co-Founder of Vivid Visions Studios, a women-led independent production company based in Calgary, Alberta. With a background in performance, stunt work, and production, she develops and produces character-driven film and television projects across drama, thriller, horror, and comedy. Her work includes multiple festival-screened short films, as well as an expanding slate of feature films and television projects developed through international collaborations spanning Canada, the United States, Europe, and India. Passionate about emotionally grounded genre storytelling, Rebecca focuses on building meaningful creative partnerships and bringing ambitious stories from concept to screen.

Shannon Steele is a Canadian writer, producer, and director from Calgary, Alberta, whose work is rooted in character-driven, atmospheric storytelling. Drawing on a multidisciplinary background in performance, directing, architecture, movement, and visual storytelling, her work explores themes of belonging, complicity, and the quiet tensions that exist within seemingly ordinary people. She is the co-founder of Vivid Visions Studios, a women-led production company dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices while creating commercially engaging, audience-driven stories. Working between Canada and Saudi Arabia, she remains actively involved in theatre and film in her community while continuing to champion Canadian storytelling. As a mother of two, she is committed to creating entertaining and meaningful stories that centre women and contribute to a more empowered future for the next generation.

Hirra Farooqi is a filmmaker, producer, and founder of the Muslim International Film Festival, a five-day international festival that attracts more than 2,000 attendees annually. Her debut short film, Solatia, premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival and received recognition from Baz Luhrmann. Hirra was a finalist at the Tasveer Film Market, a participant in the 2024 Muslim Episodic Writers Lab, and is currently part of the FOFS Director Incubator Program. Through her work in film production and festival leadership, she is committed to championing underrepresented voices and creating pathways for diverse storytellers in the film and television industry.

Marium Nur Vahed is a writer, filmmaker, and civic leader exploring how diasporic communities build collective power. She has written, directed, and produced over a dozen films, often blending grounded community narratives with the surreal. Her directing includes the drama-fantasy Kya Poem and a nationally commissioned documentary series on climate anxiety, while her producing work has screened at TIFF Unsung Voices, Reel Asian, and Dances with Film LA. Named one of Canada’s Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25 and one of The Peak’s Emerging Leaders in Social Impact, Marium draws on her lens as a changemaker to write urgent, community-driven films.

Ariel Bond (she/her) is a writer, producer, and director based in Vancouver, BC. She’s also a founder of Petite Mafia, where she’s developing a slate of bold, character-driven projects from underrepresented voices across film and television. For her psychological thriller Deepfake, Ariel received the Equity and Emerging Development Grant from Creative BC, participated in the GEMS Genre Film Lab, pitched at the Frontières International Co-Production Market, and received the inaugural Filmable x The Collective Bunch Feature Film Fellowship. She was also shortlisted for The Black List x Cassian Elwes Sundance fellowship, won Best Feature Screenplay in the GEMFest International Screenplay Competition, and received the Stowe Story Labs Genre Feature Film Launch Fellowship including participation in Stowe Narrative Lab. As a producer, Ariel’s most recent credits include the narrative-experimental short film inspired by the music of singer-songwriter Connie Converse, How Brief, directed by Kelly McCormack (Sorry, Baby) and starring Tess Degenstein (The Monkey) and Emmy-winner Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), which premiered at Sundance. Ariel also produced the ensemble comedy short, Bare, one of eight films selected for Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent showcase at Cannes. Ariel worked for many years as a producer’s assistant and production supervisor on studio projects such as Peter Pan & Wendy and Spider-Man: Far From Home. She’s an Academy Nicholl fellowship quarterfinalist and winner of the Leonard and Eileen Newman Prize for a Promising New Writer.

Emily O’Quinn Code is an award-winning filmmaker who’s releasing her first narrative short films, Fresh Meat Mom and Bush Skeleton, into the festival circuit this year. Her debut feature film, Who’s Tracy?, is currently in pre-production with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and is slated for camera in 2026.

Palmer Baranek is an international Emmy-nominated scripted producer based in Toronto. Her work spans bold, audience-driven storytelling with an emphasis on resonant and emerging voices. Palmer’s latest produced work, My Dead Mom (Crave), has garnered an International Emmy nomination, a Rockie Award, and three wins out of eight nominations at the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards. Starring Canadian legends Megan Follows and Lauren Collins and created by Wendy Litner, My Dead Mom is a dark comedy that explores grief and the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship. Her previous projects include the queer comedy I Hate People, People Hate Me (CBC) which premiered at Tribeca in 2023 and became World of Wonder’s first-ever scripted acquisition. She also produced the comedy The Communist’s Daughter (CBC), winner of the 2021 Web Series World Cup and nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards, as well as the acclaimed, Kidscreen Award–winning youth series Detention Adventure (CBC), which is available in over 125 territories and won Best Youth Series at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards.

Mishki Vaccaro is a writer, director, and producer from Toronto with a B.A. in Cultural Studies from McGill and an M.F.A. in Writing for Screen & Television from the University of Southern California. Mishki began her career in feature development at Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films, before moving into television development and production at Jason Winer’s Small Dog Picture Company. She later joined the writers’ room on NBC’s Perfect Harmony as Writer’s Assistant and co-wrote the season finale. Mishki has developed and pitched projects to major networks and streamers, and her feature script #FreeBritney was runner-up in Script Pipeline’s 2022 Screenwriting Competition. Most recently, Mishki wrote and directed the award-winning short film Bardo. Her next short, Meatball, screened at the Canadian Film Festival Comedy Igniter in 2025, and her latest film, Revel, starring Megan Follows, is currently on the festival circuit. She gravitates toward dark comedies about imperfect women searching for their place in the world.

Marie-Michèle Cyr is a producer and filmmaker based between Montreal/Tiohtià:ke and Copenhagen. In 2021, they took over Parabola Films, an established independent documentary production company, where they develop and produce director-driven work that explores identity, memory, and collective living. Their current slate includes fiction and documentary projects at various stages of development and production, supported by organizations including Telefilm Canada, SODEC, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Their projects and collaborations have taken them to major international markets and festivals including CPH:DOX, Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, and RIDM, where they have developed a growing network of creative and financing partners across North America and Europe. They are currently developing Hot Summer Nights, a serialized dramedy set in Montreal in 1990, where a police raid on a queer after-hours party ignites a summer of sex, activism, friendship, and survival.

Jess Lee is a creator, screenwriter, and director based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. Her films Landfill and Sweet Affliction have screened at numerous international festivals including image+nation LGBTQ+ film festival where the latter won the Prix du Public. She has directed music videos (Lesbians on Ecstasy, Mx.Holmes, Elle Barbara, Heathers) and experimental works which have showcased internationally, as well as produced the short film Golden Boat (dirs. Kriss Li & Gia Zozula) and wrote on the webseries Francophoney (dir. Bernadette Houde). Her work currently focuses on themes of queer aging, disability and pleasure, and community activism. Jess is currently developing two series for television, a dramatic comedy, Hot Summer Nights, and a comedic half hour, Billet. She is particularly invested in telling queer comedic stories, expanding notions of life in the margins with humour, edge, specificity, and vibrancy.

Arnold Pinnock is a British-born Canadian actor, writer, and producer, best known as the co-creator and co-executive producer of the award-winning drama The Porter. A screen veteran of thirty years (Altered Carbon, Cold Pursuit), his recent work includes CBC’s Plan B and Clement Virgo’s Steal Away, along with a role in the upcoming Paramount+ series Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story. Deeply influenced by his Jamaican heritage, Pinnock remains dedicated to bringing rich, multifaceted narratives to the global stage.

Fitch Jean is a Haitian-Canadian filmmaker, director, writer, and editor based in Ottawa, Ontario. His work centers on underrepresented voices and buried historical narratives, driven by a belief that culturally specific stories carry the most universal truths. His debut feature, It Comes in Waves, world premiered at the American Black Film Festival and has screened at 15 festivals across North America, earning five awards at Reelworld Film Festival, the Best Feature Film Audience Award at Sidewalk Film Festival, and Best Feature Film at Selma Cinema Festival. The film is distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media and now streams on Crave. His short films have screened at over 50 international festivals. Fitch’s current short film, Beneath the Iron Sky, a WWI drama about Canada’s only all-Black battalion, is currently being developed into a longer format. He teaches film at Algonquin College.

Krishna Anaberi is a Montréal-based writer, producer, and filmmaker of South Asian origin. He is the co-founder of Les Films Pollampally, where he develops character-driven stories exploring identity, belonging, and transformation through queer and immigrant perspectives. His producing credits include Maya et Zia, currently in post-production, and the internationally screened short films Próprio and Rest of the Night, the latter of which was acquired by Disney+ Hotstar. He also directed and produced the short film Hear Me and served as Executive Producer on the award-winning short Keep Punching. Earlier in his career, he worked on major Indian feature films including Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Talaash. Krishna is a participant in the Reelworld Producer’s Lab and the QEPC Business Accelerator. He is currently developing the documentary Walking to Myself and co-creating the series U-Haul Boys.

Karan Archana is a Sainte-Adèle, Québec–based writer and director of South Asian origin, whose work spans speculative fiction, drama, and social thrillers. Through intersectional, cross-cultural, and multilingual storytelling, they explore themes of belonging, memory, and social change, often examining how larger political and social forces shape the human experience. Their work has screened at festivals across Canada, Europe, and Asia, including Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Image+Nation, KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, and Reel Pride Winnipeg. A recipient of support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and Telefilm Canada, Karan’s recent projects include the shorts Pass the Salt and Maya et Zia, and feature films in development, Difference and Zoya Iman Ayaz. Their work has been developed through the Whistler Screenwriters Lab, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Canadian Media Fund’s PRISM Lab, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.