Catherine Hernandez is a Canadian writer, [1] whose debut novel Scarborough was a shortlisted finalist for the 2017 Toronto Book Awards [2] and the 2018 Edmund White Award. [3]
She has also written the plays The Femme Playlist, Singkil, Eating with Lola, Kilt Pins and Future Folk, and the children's book M for Mustache: A Pride ABC. [4] She has been the artistic director of the Sulong and b_current theatre companies in Toronto. [5]
Of mixed Filipino, Chinese, Spanish and Indian descent, she identifies as queer. [6] [7]
Her second novel, Crosshairs, was published in 2020. [8]
Scarborough was adapted by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson into the film Scarborough , [9] which premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. [10] Hernandez won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards for the film's screenplay. [11]
The novel was subsequently selected for the 2022 edition of Canada Reads , where it was defended by Malia Baker. [12]
Sarah Ellen Polley is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, political activist and retired actress. She first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary's books. This subsequently led to her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea (1990–1996). She has starred in many feature films, including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Guinevere (1999), Go (1999), The Weight of Water (2000), No Such Thing (2001), My Life Without Me (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Splice (2009), and Mr. Nobody (2009).
Michelle Latimer is a Canadian actress, director, writer, and filmmaker. She initially rose to prominence for her role as Trish Simkin on the television series Paradise Falls, shown nationally in Canada on Showcase Television (2001–2004). Since the early 2010s, she has directed several documentaries, including her feature film directorial debut, Alias (2013), and the Viceland series, Rise, which focuses on the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests; the latter won a Canadian Screen Award at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018.
Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.
Clement Virgo is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director who runs the production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, with producer Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo is best known for co-writing and directing an adaptation of the novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (2015), a six-part miniseries that aired on CBC Television in Canada and BET in the United States.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television presents one or more annual awards for the Best Screenplay for a Canadian film. Originally presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, from 1980 until 2012 the award continued as part of the Genie Awards ceremony. As of 2013, it is presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
David John Chariandy is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a professor of English literature at Simon Fraser University. His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and Toronto Book Award.
Zoe Whittall is a Canadian poet, novelist and TV writer. She has published five novels and three poetry collections to date.
Vivek Shraya is a Canadian musician, writer, and visual artist. She currently lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at the University of Calgary. As a trans femme of colour, Shraya often incorporates her identity in her music, writing, visual art, theatrical work, and films. She is a seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, and considered a Great Canadian Filmmaker of the Future by CBC Arts.
Elyse Friedman is a Canadian writer who was raised in North York, Ontario. Her latest novel, The Opportunist, released November 29, 2022.
Ann Shin is a filmmaker and writer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Kevin Patrick Mills is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and actor, whose feature film debut Guidance was released in 2015.
Renuka Jeyapalan is a Tamil Canadian film and television director. Her debut short film Big Girl won the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was a shortlisted Genie Award finalist for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 27th Genie Awards. After directing the short films Arranged (2014) and A Bicycle Lesson (2016), she co-directed the 2017 feature film Ordinary Days with Kris Booth and Jordan Canning.Stay the Night, her solo feature debut, premiered in 2022.
Bretten Hannam is a Canadian screenwriter and film director.
Téa Mutonji is a Canadian writer and poet, whose debut short story collection Shut Up You're Pretty was published in 2019.
Joyce Wong is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Toronto, Ontario, known for her work in film and television. She is most noted for her debut feature film Wexford Plaza, which was a shortlisted finalist for the John Dunning Discovery Award at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards, and for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association.
Gail Maurice is a Canadian actress, writer, and producer. She is most noted for her performances as the title character in the film Johnny Greyeyes, Dorothy Pine in the television series Cardinal, and Georgina in the television series Trickster.
Danis Goulet is a First Nations (Cree-Métis) film director and screenwriter from Canada, whose debut feature film Night Raiders premiered in 2021.
Scarborough is a 2021 Canadian drama film, directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson. An adaptation of Catherine Hernandez's 2017 novel Scarborough, the film centres on the coming of age of Bing, Sylvie and Laura, three young children in a low-income neighbourhood in the Scarborough district of Toronto, as they learn the value of community, passion and resilience over the course of a school year through an after-school program led by childhood educator Ms. Hina.
Shasha Nakhai is a Filipino-Iranian Canadian film director, most noted as co-director with Rich Williamson of the 2021 film Scarborough. The film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture, and Nakhai and Williamson won the award for Best Director, at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.
Scarborough is the debut novel by Canadian writer Catherine Hernandez, published in 2017. Set in the Toronto district of Scarborough, the novel centres on the coming-of-age of three young children living in the low-income Galloway Road neighbourhood — Bing, a boy struggling with his sexual identity; Laura, a girl who longs for stability as she is continually being shuffled back and forth between her mother's and her father's separate homes; and Sylvie, a girl whose family is living in a homeless shelter — as well as Hina, a community literacy worker dedicated to serving as a supportive oasis of guidance for underprivileged children in her community.