BIPOC TV & Film Unscripted Producers Lab Participants

Vatsala Aron

Vatsala Aron brings a decade-plus of producing experience in India and the Asia Pacific. Until 2021, she worked full-time as a head of production with Vice Media. Vatsala has worked across various formats with leading media companies, including Amazon, Netflix, Discovery, Fox Life and Bacardi, and across subcultures: music, travel, lifestyle, true crime, food, investigative, comedy and children’s programming. Her latest work includes INDIAN PREDATOR, a true crime docu-series for Netflix India. Vatsala recently completed a MA in Media Production at Toronto Metropolitan University and is now based in Toronto. Vatsala aims to consciously produce content behind the scenes and help facilitate change at a community level. She values a people-first approach driven by emotional and cultural awareness. Her strength lies in owning risks, trusting the process and embracing unfamiliarity. In between projects, Vatsala finds her way to the Arctic, reads psychology, and plays the piano.

Sabine Daniel

Sabine Daniel is an award-winning bilingual Canadian Producer & Host creating multiplatform quality productions that reflect the world as we know it. Her work consistently produces the second season of SUNNY’S QUEST, an English-language children’s show featuring personal stories told by Black children across the country. This series is broadcast across Canada. Recently, she launched a series of educational and bilingual podcasts entitled, The Incredible Stories of African-Canadians. With more than 15 years of experience in front of and behind the camera, Sabine is dedicated to telling stories that reflect all Canadians and creating more opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour creatives in film, broadcast, and television.

Priyanka Desai

Priyanka Desai is an award-winning broadcast journalist-turned-TV producer specializing in stories that impact and entertain. Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Priyanka is known for her understanding of diverse cultures across two continents. In Canada, her credits include a variety of producing roles for the likes of TELUS Originals, Storyhive, APTN, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and AMI. Through her newly founded company, Jugaad Sisters, her goal is to enable immigrant women of colour to achieve professional excellence in Canada.

Jonathan Jude

Producer, director, and creative collaborator Jonathan Jude is an award-winning professional in the Canadian documentary and unscripted television industry. Jonathan is passionate about inspiring change through media and has recently produced the 2020 CSA Best Factual series, EMPLOYABLE ME. Jonathan’s directorial debut garnered tremendous media attention through CBC Gem title DREAM BOXER. Jonathan has recently produced and story-edited two seasons of the series, CANADA’S GOT TALENT and was the digital producer of big hit shows like CBC Gem’s, THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE CANADA and the prime-time CTV unscripted series HOLMES FAMILY EFFECT. Jonathan’s next project, SPICE GIRL EATS: INDIA brings the most vulnerable side to his storytelling, documenting his sister’s journey back to India following their family cookbook while educating audiences about the diaspora of Indian food and communities across Canada.

Derek Kwan

Derek Kwan is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker based in Vancouver, BC. Naturally gravitating towards stories surrounding food and culture, he strives to bring narratives to screen through a lens not widely portrayed before. Derek was selected as part of Reelworld’s E20 Program as one of 20 emerging Canadian filmmakers for 2021. He directed the documentary film Me funded by Telus Storyhive, winning Grand Jury Best Short Documentary at SAAFF ‘19 and DisOrient ‘19. Derek was Producer on the short film Maundy, a Telefilm ‘Not Short on Talent’ selection and showcased at the Short Film Corner during the Festival de Cannes 2022. Lastly, Derek was also a 2022 Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices fellow.

Camille Lawrence

Camille Lawrence is an accomplished television professional with eight years of industry experience across various genres. She has successfully driven many projects from inception to completion as a production manager in the animation industry to story producing, casting, development and post-production in lifestyle and competition reality programming. Camille leads with curiosity and is passionate about authentic unscripted storytelling. Some of her notable credits include: THE AMAZING RACE CANADA, CANADA’S GOT TALENT, BEST IN MINIATURE, and THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY. She holds an honours bachelor of arts degree in communication studies from Wilfrid Laurier University and a postgraduate certificate in Children’s Media: Writing, Production and Management from Centennial College.

Oswaldo Quiro

Oswaldo Quiroz, a.k.a “Ozzy,” started his film and television career in 2009 after graduating from the POV Film organization and completing an internship at Radke Films in Toronto. His early honours earned him a nomination for George Canyon’s Better Be Home Soon at the CCMA for the music video of the year under the mentorship of director Warren P. Sonoda. Ozzy works freelance as a unit production manager and producer on countless commercials and unscripted productions in English, French, Spanish and Farsi. In 2016, he launched Latinx Nation which supports Latin artists through education, providing free annual production workshops to the Latinx community for young people wishing to enter the film industry. He also supports and volunteers at CARAS, POV Film as a board member, and at the Canadian Hispanic-Latin American Virtual Museum as media director. In 2022 he created, produced and directed his first unscripted series, PIZZA TOWN, to be released in spring 2023 with support from Bell Fibe TV1.

Amita Zamaana

Amita Zamaana is a writer, producer and director for both scripted and unscripted television. Her work has been featured on CTV, CBC, Netflix, MTV and Roku. She is a Senior Producer on the The Great Canadian Show, is currently in production on a CBC doc, and is in development on a scripted comedy series as well. As an intersectional storyteller, Amita’s production company, Fig. 5 Productions, inherently addresses underrepresentation, misrepresentations and erasures of important voices and stories in film/television/digital arts. Fig. 5 has an original and innovative slate of scripted and unscripted projects in development that Amita is extremely excited about.