Anusree is a Governor General's Award-nominated and four-time Dora Award winning writer, actor, and director. For theatre: Anusree's plays include: Through the eyes of God, Sisters, Trident Moon, Little Pretty and The Exceptional, Sultans of the Street, Brothel # 9, Roshni, Letters to my Grandma, and Pyaasa. For television: Anusree has worked on Remedy (Global TV), Killjoys (SyFy), Nurses S1 & S2 (GlobalTV/NBC), Transplant S2 (CTV/NBC), Fanger (Netflix), SkyMed (Paramount+/CBC). She is the recipient of the K.M. Hunter Award, BC Emerging Artist Award, The Carol Bolt Award and The Siminovitch Protégé Prize. She was a 2018 finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her plays have appeared in various anthologies along with being published by Playwright's Canada Press. Anusree is currently developing a feature film inspired by her Audio Play: Sisters as well as Directing and premiering her short films: The Birthday Party and God's Plan (winner of Best Performance & Best Editing at WIFF). Recently, her new TV pilot Part-Time Disabled was selected to be a part of AccessBC's program and her series adaptation of Austenistan is in development with Unicorn Island Productions and Blink49 Studio. Currently, she is an Adjunct Professor, teaching playwriting at the University of Toronto.

Ayesha Mohsin is a Pakistani Canadian artist. She is the founder and artistic director of Lexeme Theatre and Media Company. Her research and work showcase multilingual and multicultural elements which depicts her immigrant background and knowledge. Ayesha is the recipient of Regina Artist Award; supported by The Harry Nick Kangles Endowment Fund. She is currently pursuing an Interdisciplinary MFA in Film and Theatre, she works at Mackenzie Art Gallery and Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina.

Cheryl Foggo is a multiple award-winning playwright, author and filmmaker, whose work over the last 30 years has focused on the lives of Western Canadians of African descent. In 2021, 2022 and 2023, her plays Heaven and John Ware Reimagined have received multiple productions, including at The Citadel in Edmonton, Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary, at the Blyth Theatre Festival and in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre. Other recent works include her NFB feature documentary John Ware Reclaimed, available on nfb.ca, as well as the 30th anniversary edition of her book Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West. Recent journalism can be found in the Interrupt/Reframe issue of The Fold, on CBC Black on the Prairies and in Westword Magazine. She is also the author of 3 acclaimed YA and Children’s books: One Thing That’s True, I Have Been in Danger and Dear Baobab. She recently wrapped shooting of a short film about northern Saskatchewan’s Black History, scheduled to premiere in spring, 2024. Cheryl was the recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Outstanding Artist Award, The Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award and the Arts, Media and Entertainment Award from the Calgary Black Chambers, all in 2021. In 2022 she received the Women Making History in Alberta Award from Heritage Park and was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence. She is also a recipient of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal. Cheryl was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Mount Royal University in June of 2023.

Ibukun Fasunhan is a producer, stage manager, playwright, producer, researcher, and artistic director of Eclectique Theatre. His work has graced different theatres globally in London, United Arab Emirates, and South Africa, amongst others. He was selected as one of five African theatre producers to participate in the “Pan-African Creative Exchange Producers Lab” in South Africa and the “Playwright Virtual Lab” between 6 Nigerian and UK emerging playwrights. He is interested in site-specific theatre, applied theatre, spectatorship, spatial dynamics, and decolonization. He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies in media and artistic research at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2022, he was selected as one of four artists to participate in the national expansion of Why Not Theatre’s The RISER Project. His new play, Rites of Passage, premiered as part of RISER Regina in May 2023, presented by On Cue Performance Hub & Why Not Theatre.

Hagere Selam “shimby” Zegeye-Gebrehiwot is an artist and administrator who currently resides in Treaty 4 Territory. They work with mediums spanning experimental film, art criticism, poetry and hybrid forms that take root and bloom in Black, feminist and queer counter-institutions and archives. Currently, they are the Executive Director at the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative and Co_Director of WNDX Festival of Moving Image.

Norman is a writer, actor, and visual artist whose work is devoted to creating opportunities for underrepresented people. He is Playwright in Residence at Outside the March to write Eunuch X Pirate (winner of a Tyrone Guthrie Award at Stratford Festival—and the focus of his reading for this series). He is also writing Aging Youth Gang under commission by Crow’s Theatre.

His play, Theory, premiered at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, was recorded as an audio drama for the PlayME/CBC Podcasts and had an American premiere by Mosaic Theater Company of Washington, D.C. It won The Voaden Prize, was nominated for the Carol Bolt Award, and is published by Playwrights Canada Press. Pu-Erh received four Dora Award nominations, including Outstanding New Play, and was a finalist for The Voaden Prize. In addition to several other plays, he has also written the libretto for the opera, Black Blood (Tapestry New Opera Showcase, with composer Christiaan Venter).

He has been a member of playwright/creator units at Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, fu-GEN Theatre Company, Tapestry Opera, and Canadian Stage. He was a finalist for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize.

As a screenwriter he is currently working on the series Jewelz (workshopped at the Loughborough Lake Writer’s Retreat, Crow’s Theatre/Mongrel Media); the series Blood Rush (The Black List’s Top List, quarterfinalist for WeScreenplay Diverse Voices); and a feature film adaption of his award-winning play Theory.

As an actor he has performed on stages across Canada and in many film and TV roles. His favourites include a supporting role in Resident Evil: Afterlife and a series regular role in Todd and the Book of Pure Evil.

He holds a BFA in Acting/Theatre from the University of British Columbia and a BFA (Honours) in Film from Toronto Metropolitan University. Norman was born in Guangzhou, grew up in East Vancouver, and is based in Toronto.

Makram Ayache is a multiple award winning playwright, performer, director, and educator living between Alberta and Toronto. His playwriting explores representations of queer Arab voices and aims to bridge political struggles to the intimate experiences of the people impacted by them.

Ayache's 2023 world premiere of The Hooves Belonged to the Deer (Tarragon Theatre with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)  was described as  "the most excitingly theatrical piece of new writing to premiere in Toronto" by the Globe and Mail and garnered a critics' pick.  Previously, The Green Line (Downstage and Chromatic Theatre) garnered four Betty Mitchell Award Nominations, winning two including "Outstanding New Play." Ayache is also the 2020 recipient of the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada’s Tom Hendry Award for Harun. He was also been nominated for four Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards for Harun (2018) and The Green Line (2019). 

Alongside writing, Ayache directs and performs, most recently working alongside Mitchell Cushman, as Associate Director, with Outside the March and Factory Theatre's production of Gillian Clark's Trojan Girls.

Currently, he is developing Small Gods (at the Start of the World) with support from Toronto's Factory Theatre and working on his first graphic novel project! Find him at www.makramayache.com

Ayache is also an educator and curriculum designer (BEd, University of Alberta) who runs Shajara, an organization which works with organizations, collectives, and individuals to make meaningful change towards equity and the elimination of oppression directed against people who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ (2-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual/Agender). In this capacity he has worked with organizations like the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Shakespeare in the Ruff, and The Canadian Theatre Critics Association.

Carson is an award-winning writer, actor, designer, producer and the founder of Be Kind Rewind Productions. His work frequently deals with themes of adolescence, Queerness, history, identity, pop culture, romance, family and home. Recently Carson has been designing costumes for two productions in the Globe Theatre’s 2023/2024 season and pitched to Netflix for their Original Canadian content division. In 2021/2022 he served as the Costume Coordinator at the Stratford Festival. In 2022, he was selected as one of four artists to participate in the national expansion of Why Not Theatre’s The RISER Project. His new musical, “Annette is a Bimbo!”, premiered as part of RISER Regina in May 2023, presented by On Cue Performance Hub & Why Not Theatre.

Reneltta is an Inuvialuit, Dene and Cree mom from the Northwest Territories. She is currently the Senior Manager of Policy, Protocols and Strategic Planning for Indigenous Ways & Decolonization at the National Gallery of Canada. Previously she has been Director of Indigenous Arts at BANFF Centre for Arts and Creativity and founder of Akpik Theatre, a professional Indigenous Theatre company in the Northwest Territories. Reneltta has taken part in or initiated the creation of Indigenous Theatre across Canada and overseas. Reneltta has written, produced, and performed various works focusing on decolonization, climate change, and using theatre as a tool for reconciliation. Her play TUMIT (meaning "tracks" in Inuktitut) is a northern Indigenous play that weaves contemporary and traditional storytelling together to explore the cycles that pass from generation to generation. Her latest work, Pawâkan Macbeth, is a Plains Cree takeover of Macbeth. Pawâkan Macbeth was inspired by working with youth and elders on the Frog Lake reserve on Treaty 6 territory. Reneltta is the first Inuk and first Indigenous woman to direct at The Stratford Festival. She was the recipient of their Tyrone Guthrie - Derek F. Mitchell Artistic Director's Award for her direction of Colleen Murphy’s The Breathing Hole.

Hengameh E. Rice are a writing team, with Hengameh born in Shiraz, Iran and Rice born in Edmonton, Alberta. Hengameh brings stories full of passion about the complex world of the Middle East and West Asia. Rice brings the experience of thirty years in the arts and communications. Together they create and produce exciting, compelling stories that illuminate layers of the multifaceted countries and cultures underrepresented on Canadian stages. Their first play, Anahita’s Republic, had its World Premiere (by Bustle & Beast Theatre) in Toronto in March of 2023, and its Alberta premiere in Edmonton in May of 2023. Nominated for two Dora Awards (Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Set Design – Independent Theatre category) for its Bustle & Beast Toronto production, and for three Sterling Awards (Outstanding Independent Production, Outstanding Performance for a Leading Role, Outstanding Score) for its Edmonton production, the play provoked powerful responses and feedback in both cities. 

Set in Iran, Anahita’s Republic is the story of a woman who refuses to wear the hijab, and so promotes the struggle for women’s rights from inside her walled compound, using her brother as an agent and a shield. The playwriting team is deeply involved in writing their next play and staging Anahita's Republic in other cities in Canada and beyond.