Dawn Wilkinson is an award-winning director and screenwriter. She is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Directors’ Lab and Short Dramatic Film Program. In 2005 he directed her first feature film Devotion, a coming-of-age story based on her personal experience growing up in small town Ontario. Devotion won awards at Toronto’s Reel World Film Festival and Best Feature at the San Francisco Black Film Festival’s Urban Kidz Program.

Dawn has directed many shorts while using her skill of getting the best performances out of her cast, just like her mentor Norman Jewison. These films include Girls Who Say Yes, Dandelions and Wilderness.

being awarded the WIFT and DGC Emerging Television Director Award, Dawn has directed many of Canada's top drama series, including Heartland, Murdoch Mysteries and Degrassi, which was nominated for a DGC Award for Best Family TV Series, and comedies Sunnyside and Kim’s Convenience, which was also nominated for a Best Directing DGC Award. Some of her other directing credits include Reign, Dynasty, Good Doctor, Roswell, Riverdale, Empire and Locke & Key. Dawn is currently in post-production on her feature film Block Party.

Karen Chapman is a director who has grown with her involvement in Banff Centre, Women in the Director Chair, the CaribbeanTales Incubator, the HotDocs Accelerator, TIFF Talent Lab and the TIFF 2020 Accelerator.

In 2017 Karen won the WIFT – Toronto Audience Choice Award for her short Walk Good. She then won the Best Screenplay Award for Lesson Injustice the year after. By 2018, she was already one of Playback Magazine's 5 Filmmakers to Watch and her film Essequibo Rapture won the Caribbean Film Academy's International Screenplay Competition.

In 2019 her short Measure premiered at TIFF and won the International Hollywood Foreign Press and Residency Award at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards. Measure also won CineFilm's Best Overall Film and the award for Best Directing in 2020 at the Women In Film and Television - Toronto Showcase.

Most recently, Karen directed New Monuments, a hybrid dance documentary. She has also directed television episodes for Holly Hobbie and Odd Squad Mobile Unit. Currently, Chapman's endeavors center on pre-production for her first feature film, through Telefilm Talent to Watch Program. After 51 short films Karen is proud to be the recipient of the 2020 ReelWorld Trailblazer Award.

Clark Johnson is an actor, director and producer originally from Philadelphia. He got his start in the film business when he worked as a special effects technician on David Cronenberg’s 1983 Videodrome. From 1993 to 1998 he had a lead role in Homicide: Life on the Streets.

His Hollywood break came in 2003 when he directed S.W.A.T., starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell. Since then, Clark has directed episodes of NYPD Blue, The West Wing, The Wire (including the pilot), The Shield (for which he received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Director for a Drama Series), King, The Walking Dead, Homeland, Hell on Wheels, Orange is the New Black, Your Honor, and most recently, The Mayor of Kingstown.

Clark has also directed features, including Juanita and Percy vs. Goliath, both of which he was director and executive producer.

In 2018, Clark was awarded the Earle Grey Award at the Canadian Screen Awards, which is presented to an actor or actress whose body of work in Canadian television has had an exceptional impact on the strength of the industry at home and around the world.

Visionary writer/director R.T. Thorne has emerged as one of North America's most eclectic storytellers since debuting on the music video filmmaking scene over a decade ago. A versatile triple threat, he is a director, producer, and screenwriter, focused on telling stories that break new ground representing the unrepresented. In 2020 he created Utopia Falls, an award winning Afrofuturistic, young adult science fiction series. His next project is the CBC / BET+ historical drama The Porter (2021).

Known for his bold visual style, and a strong sense of story & character, R.T. has been tapped to direct television for NBC Universal, The CW, Warner Television, Netflix, Disney, HULU and Bell Media. His international episodic television work has taken him to three continents, earning him three Canadian Screen Award directing nominations, and a Writer's Guild of Canada Award.

As Chair of the BIPOC members committee for the Director's Guild of Canada, R.T. is committed to fighting against racism and discrimination, while advocating for equality in the entertainment industry. R.T. continues to follow his passion for storytelling, creating & developing commercially viable filmmaking properties from diverse cultural perspectives.

Director X is a director from Toronto. 

Moving to New York City, he became the protégé of pioneering director Hype Williams. X has been noted for directing high-budget, visually distinctive videos for popular artists, including: Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Fifth Harmony, Wiz Khalifa, Usher, John Mayer, Korn, Iggy Azalea, Sean Paul and many more. His work has been nominated and awarded by the MTV Music Video Awards and Much Music Video Awards. X has directed commercials for Apple Music, Ebay, Virginia Black and Gap’s noteworthy ‘Meet Me In The Gap’ campaign.

As a film director, X made his directorial debut in 2014 with an edgy drama titled ACROSS THE LINE which won Best Feature at the Atlantic Film Festival 2015.

In 2018 he directed his third feature, Superfly, a remake of the 1972 blaxploitation film of the same name. He was also the executive producer and a director of Mister Tachyon, a fringe science series.

His ‘Robyn Hood’ series, which will reimagine the tale by following a Gen Z woman who leads a hip-hop band by day and fights injustice at night, was just greenlit by Global.

Frances-Anne Solomon (Legacy) is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and producer with a career spanning over 30 years.

She is the founder of CaribbeanTales, an organization that produces, markets, and distributes Caribbean-themed films. CaribbeanTales has been bringing BIPOC content to screens for over twenty years.

She was also the recipient of the 2018 Visionary Award from the ReelWorld Film Festival. In July 2019 she was one of 842 new members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. Frances-Anne is known for directing Hero: Inspired By The Extraordinary Life And Times Of Mr. Ulric Cross, A Winter Tale and What my mother told me.

Charles Officer is a Toronto born Jamaican-Canadian award-winning director, as well as an actor and writer. His directorial debut, When Morning Comes, premiered at TIFF in 2000. His follow up feature, Nurse.Fighter.Boy, won two audience awards and a jury award. In 2017 he made a splash with Unarmed Verses, which delves into issues surrounding youth and race in Toronto following the shooting of Trayvon Martin in the U.S. Unarmed Verses won Best Canadian Feature at Hot Docs and Best Canadian Documentary at VIFF. He is also know for The Skin We’re In and Invisible Essence: The Little Prince.

His most recent feature, Akilla’s Escape, premiered at TIFF 2020 and was nominated for Best Canadian Feature Film and for three DGC Awards, winning the award for Best Production Design- Feature Film.. 

Charles is an executive producer and director on the upcoming CBC series The Porter, which is set in the roaring 1920 and is inspired by real events. The Porter tells the story of the world’s first Black union and depicts the Black community in St. Antoine, Montreal, which was know as “Harlem of the North.”

Kelly Fyffe-Marshall is a director, screenwriter and activist who has seen incredible success with her sophomore film Black Bodies. The short premiered at TIFF 2020 and Kelly was awarded the inaugural Changemaker Award, which is presented to a film that tackles social change issues.

Her short film Black Bodies premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2021 and was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize. Black Bodies won the 2021 Canadian Screen Award for Best live Action Short Drama. The film is now available to watch on Crave Canada.

In 2021, Kelly tweeted her frustration about the underrepresentation of Black artists in Canada. Her tweet caught the attention of director Ava DuVernay and she was since featured on CBC’s The National in The Moment and on q with Tom Power.

Kelly recently completed a horror short film, Omni and directed Merry Liddle Christmas Baby, which premiered in November 2021 and stars Kelly Rowland.

Kelly also started the non-profit organization Make Ripples, which focuses on addressing inequality through education and knowledge sharing.

Sharon Lewis is a director, screenwriter and producer,. Her projects and stories highlight women of color. Since her debut in 1994 with her play Sistahs, Sharon has worked with top Canadian talent. For more than two decades, she has been creating content that all Canadians can be proud of.

With hundreds of hours of directing in her career, Sharon never ceases to focus on underrepresented groups in film and television.

Cory Bowles is an actor and director from Truro, Nova Scotia who relocated and is now a DGC Ontario Member. His 2017 feature Black Cop, which follows the story of a black police officer working in a privileged community, premiered at TIFF and won 11 awards, including the John Dunning Discovery Award at the Canadian Screen Awards and Best Canadian Feature at VIFF. He is also known for Pure and Trailer Park Boys, for which he received a 2016 DGC Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a comedy series.

Cory’s recent projects include directing episodes of Coroner, Pretty Hard Cases, The Parker Andersons/Amelia Parker, Nurses, Diggstown and The Kings of Napa.

He is also a dancer, choreographer and teacher at Maritime Dance Performance Group, Halifax Dance, Jazz Bliss and continues to choreograph for his own dance company, "Verve Mwendo".

Ariane Collman is a DGC Quebec Assistant Director. She has worked on films such as The Song of Names, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan and John Wick: Chapter 2. In 2021 she worked on The Moodys, The Bold Type, The Republic of Sarah and Home Sweet Home Alone. Her latest work can be seen on the upcoming CBC series, The Porter. She is currently working on The Moodys. Ariane is also a member of the DGC’s BIPOC committee. We look forward to seeing her work and growth in the industry.

Anthony Q. Farrell is a writer, producer, actor and director best known for his works in writing for the Emmy winning sitcom The Office, Little Mosque on the Prairie and The Thundermans. He is also the creator of the BAFTA award winning series Secret Life of Boys.

Anthony is the new showrunner for two separate but interconnected series The Parker Andersons and Amelia Parker with the former focusing on the comedic life of a bi-racial family and the latter about the life of the quietest member of the family, Amelia. In addition to being showrunner for the two shows, he will also be directing a few episodes, utilizing his life experiences growing up as a person of colour in North America along with the experiences of his diverse team to bring authenticity to the life of the characters. 

n 2021 Anthony was nominated for a DGC Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Family Series.

Anthony is producer, writer and director of the recent CBC series Overlord and the Underwoods.

Weyni Mengesha is an award-winning director and producer who started her career in the theatre world. She directed “da Kink in my Hair,” which debuted at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2001 and became an international sensation with 4 Dora Awards Nominations including Best Composition by Weyni. It made history by becoming the first Canadian play to be performed at the Princess of Whales Theatre, a 2000 seat theatre, and later became a television show.

In 2012 she directed Kim’s Convenience at the Soulpepper Theatre, which became the most commercially successful production in the company's entire history. She was an executive producer and director on the hit CBC comedy of the same name, which brought a Korean Canadian family into the spotlight.

In 2018 Weyni was appointed as the new Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company.

In 2021 Weyni was a part of the project 21 Black Futures, which is an anthology series in which 21 playwrights, 21 directors and 21 actors respond to the question “What is the future of Blackness?”

Dason Johnson has worked in the film & television industry for over a decade working in the locations department as a scout and manager. His decade-long experience has led him to develop knowledge in areas of pre and post production and has led him to become the owner of a boutique audio and video production company in Toronto. 

Some of the productions he’s worked on include Dark Matter, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Dino Dana and the Odd Squad series.

Some of the productions he’s worked on include Dark Matter, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Dino Dana, Odd Squad and Suits.

Sudz Sutherland is an award winning screenwriter and director. His feature film Home Again won the PAFF-BAFTA Festival Choice Awards and was nominated for the DGC Awards. His first feature Love, Sex and Eating Bones premiered at TIFF and won best first feature and was also nominated for three Genies.

Sudz along with his wife Jen Holness are the founders of the production company Hungry Eyes Film & Television.

He is an executive producer on the 2020 documentary Stateless, which was nominated for a CSA and won the Audience Award at the Boston Latino Film Festival. He is also an executive producer on the 2021 award-winning documentary Subjects of Desire and both a producer and director on a powerful new documentary series, BLK: An Origin Story, that he co-created about lost Black History in Canada, which premieres on February 26^th.

Alicia K. Harris is an award winning director and writer based in Toronto. She is dedicated to telling the stories of Black women and the underrepresented.

Her 2019 short film Pick, which follows the story of a girl and her afro on picture day, won awards at multiple film festivals and the Best Live Action Drama award at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards. It is in the 2021 Oscar race for Best Live Action Short Film.

In 2021 Alicia directed an episode of the mini-series 21 Black Futures and The Parker Andersons/Amelia Parker. She also released a new short titled Only Light Will Touch Us and is currently in pre-production on her short On a Sunday at Eleven.

Alison Duke is an award-winning independent producer and director. Duke started  directing music videos for Toronto artists in the mid 90s before turning towards documentaries where she created her first feature documentary Raisin’ Kane: A Rapumentary for which she won the HBO best documentary award at the 2001 Urbanworld Film Festival. Since then, she has gone on to produce and direct many more award wining feature length documentaries that deal primary with social issues.

In 2021 she directed an episode of the mini-series 21 Black Futures. She is the co-founder of Oya Media Group.