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Join Melissa DiMarco, her celebrity connections and industry experts.
Learn How to Make a Living in this Business
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How to Make a Living Creating Content?
Real Pros Share Real Advice.
How to Make a Living Creating Your Own Content
SPEAKER SESSIONS
1:00pm to 3:00pm ET
Melissa moderates this popular industry know-how event. She shares her in-depth celebrity advice and experiences. Joining the sessions are industry experts in producing, writing, directing, and much, much, more!
NETWORKING & ROUNDTABLES
3:15pm to 5:00pm ET
Available ONLY with VIP Pass
Network with Industry Professional and start making connections NOW!
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She is the face and force behind Out There with Melissa DiMarco, which is one of the country's longest-running comedy/variety series, also syndicated in international markets. For over 15 years, Melissa has produced ground-breaking television with a trademark for innovative shows. She has created hundreds of hours of content for networks including Rogers Media, Global, CHCH, FOX, and Out TV.
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As an experienced content creator from all sides: writing, directing, showrunning, editing and on-camera. Highlights include: An Evening with Oliver Stone, Out There with Melissa DiMarco, Dreamseekers, Confessions of a Go-To-Girl, and Star Wars: Jedi Challenges. As an actor/host, Melissa has also interviewed hundreds of A-list celebrities from Brad Pitt and George Clooney to Julia Roberts and Lady Gaga. Melissa has long acted in a number of North America’s most memorable productions. She starred in the Emmy-winning drama, Degrassi: The Next Generation, CBC's Riverdale, as well as films like Red Green’s Duct Tape Forever and Hustle: The Pete Rose Story.
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​Melissa and her production company Out There Productions Inc. has won the U.S. International Film and Video Festival’s Outstanding Achievement in Creative Excellence Award, and has been nominated for 2 Banff Rockie Awards for Best TV and Variety Show and 2 Canadian Comedy Awards for Best Writing and Best TV Series.
Sherry White
Writer/Director/Producer/Showrunner
Sherry White has been writing, directing and producing for film and TV for 20 years.
She is best known for writing the film Maudie (2016), which won 7 Canadian Screen Awards including Best Original Screenplay. She also wrote and directed the award-winning Crackie (2009), which played dozens of festivals worldwide after its TIFF premiere.
Sherry gained extensive experience as a writer, producer, and showrunner on series such as Ten Days in the Valley (Skydance/ABC, 2016/2017), Frontier (Take the Shot/Discovery/Netflix, 2016/2017), The Catch (Shondaland/ABC, 2015), Rookie Blue (eOne/Global/ABC, 2009-2015), and Little Dog (CBC, 2018-2019), the latter of which earned her two nominations for the Directors Guild of Canada.
She now serves as co-creator, co-showrunner, and director on the action-packed female buddy cop series Pretty Hard Cases (CBC/NBCU, 2021—).
Cinematographer
Arthur is an award-winning cinematographer whose unique vision has screened at international festivals including Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, Roma Television Festival and TIFF. A graduate of Ryerson University, his love of images and light began with his first camera at age seven, and his career spans over 25 years across the Canada and around the world. Arthur has lensed more than 150 short format films, music videos and webisodes.
His work in features includes the Sundance screened Heater and some of English Canada’s most recognized titles, One Week, Young People F*cking and the vibrant, stylish Home Again, in addition to second unit work on Room, Fugitive Pieces and The Whistleblower.
His television work includes multiple genres for CBC, Vision TV, Family Channel and BBC. Sitcoms G-Spot and She’s the Mayor, kids programming Life With Derek, and What’s Up Warthogs?, and hard hitting dramas like the mini series Guns. He’s also done 2nd unit on network shows like Bitten, The Divide and Rewind. One of his most recent works is the exciting, stylish dramatic series, Shoot the Messenger.
Kim Todd
Writer/Director/Producer/Showrunner
Sherry White has been writing, directing and producing for film and TV for 20 years.
She is best known for writing the film Maudie (2016), which won 7 Canadian Screen Awards including Best Original Screenplay. She also wrote and directed the award-winning Crackie (2009), which played dozens of festivals worldwide after its TIFF premiere.
Sherry gained extensive experience as a writer, producer, and showrunner on series such as Ten Days in the Valley (Skydance/ABC, 2016/2017), Frontier (Take the Shot/Discovery/Netflix, 2016/2017), The Catch (Shondaland/ABC, 2015), Rookie Blue (eOne/Global/ABC, 2009-2015), and Little Dog (CBC, 2018-2019), the latter of which earned her two nominations for the Directors Guild of Canada.
She now serves as co-creator, co-showrunner, and director on the action-packed female buddy cop series Pretty Hard Cases (CBC/NBCU, 2021—).
Editor
Kathy Weinkauf is an multi-award nominated film and television editor working in Toronto for the past 25 years. She began her editing career cutting music videos and went on to cut short films, documentaries, TV series and feature films.
Films she has edited have won awards around the world. They include Monkey Warfare (Grand Jury Award, TIFF ‘06), Small Town Gay Bar (Best Documentary, LA Outfest ‘07), Surviving Crooked Lake (Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography, Slamdance ‘08), the multi-award winning film Interviews with my Next Girlfriend (Best Short Film, Inside/Out Festival ‘02), as well as the multi-award winning film Evelyn, the Cutest Evil Dead Girl (Grand Jury Award Best Short, No-dance Festival ‘02). She was nominated for a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Editing in 2006 for her work on Santa Baby and also nominated for a 2010 DGC Award for Best Editing for Leslie, My Name is Evil.
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Most recently she was nominated for a 2022 Canada Screen Award for Best Picture Editing, Drama for her work on Murdoch Mysteries. She is currently in Toronto editing Season 16 of Murdoch Mysteries.
Director
Sergio Navarretta is an internationally award-winning director who is fiercely passionate about bringing meaningful content to the screen. He draws inspiration from Italian neorealism and considers his work an exploration of the human condition. Navarretta’s projects are touching, relevant, inclusive, often humorous, and most importantly, entertaining.
Navarretta made his directorial debut with LOOKING FOR ANGELINA, a true crime feature that tells the story of one of the most sensational murder cases in North American history. LOOKING FOR ANGELINA won numerous awards, was showcased at festivals around the world, played to sold-out theatres in fifteen Canadian cities, and ranked amongst the top five in box office revenues for Canadian films at the time.
Currently, Navarretta is back in the director’s chair with his passion project, THE CUBAN, starring: Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. (AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN); Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG); Ana Golja (Degrassi: Next Class); Lauren Holly (DUMB AND DUMBER) and Giacomo Gianniotti (Grey’s Anatomy). THE CUBAN tells the story of a naïve pre-med student named Mina (Golja) who develops an unlikely friendship with Luis, an elderly Cuban musician with dementia (Gossett Jr.).
Just prior to the quarantine orders necessitated by COVID19 all over the world, THE CUBAN screened at the Whistler Film Festival and the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, winning top awards at each. THE CUBAN features the music of Grammy-nominated piano virtuoso, Hilario Duran.
Cinematographer
ROBERT SCARBOROUGH CSC is a director of photography located in Toronto Canada.
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Robert’s portfolio contains a healthy blend of high-profile TV series, independent films and commercials. His most recent project THE LAKE – starring Julia Stiles – is Amazon Studio’s first Canadian scripted series. He shot all eight half-hour episodes and the series now is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in all Amazon territories.
In 2022, Robert shot second unit for both the CBS show IN THE DARK and the CTV show 'CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING'.
In 2020, he won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Photography in a Comedy for his work on the CBC / IFC BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW Season 4 and in 2021 was nominated for a CSC award for best web series cinematography for his work on the CBC Gem series FOR THE RECORD.
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His feature film work includes ROOM FOR RENT (starring Brett Gelman, Stephnie Weir, Carla Gallo and Mark McKinney), DANIEL’S GOTTA DIE (starring Bob Saget, Iggy Pop, Jason Jones, Carly Chaikin), ASHGROVE, THE DEFINITES, YOUR BEAUTIFUL CUL DE SAC HOME, and second unit cinematography on NO STRANGER THAN LOVE (starring Alison Brie, Justin Chatwin and Colin Hanks).
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His commercial work includes spots for ROGERS, MCDONALD'S, CANADIAN TIRE, SPECTRUM, FORD, MAZDA, BELL, SKITTLES, BEST BUY, CADBURY, DESJARDIN, SMIRNOFF, TIM HORTONS, SPEEDSTICK, WALMART, BMO and more.
Daryl
Ledwon
Actor, Mandy Representative
MANDY.COM
Daryl has been in the Film and Television industry for years both in front and behind the camera. As an actor, he has worked on various television programs such as Unexpected Killer, MurderBoard, Paranormal Survivor and Killer Affair as well as indie films like A Song for Us, Snowed Inn and others. A theatre performer, he has been in many plays and musicals across Canada. He also regularly consults with production companies and casting directors to source talent and crew as the Canadian representative for Mandy.com.
Adam
Pal
Director, Writer, Producer
Twenty-five years ago, Adam Pal was coined, ‘a small-town boy with worldwide gusto’ doing live shows from Toronto to China, Las Vegas to Israel. Pal was willing to do anything in the business. “If all the world’s a stage, I am the best boy key grip” -Pal
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Pal is the owner/operator of Glass Ceiling Productions, producer, and creator of 4 short union films, producer of digital content, online radio shows, national tv, theatre content and social media.
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Pal has taken time to create short stories and is reviewing publishers for a partnership to promote his Novella, Novelette, and said short stories.
1st Assistant Editor/Editor
James Chellingworth (DGC) is a Toronto-based 1st Assistant Editor/Editor who's worked on over a dozen TV and Film projects.
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His credits include CBC's Kim's Convenience, AMC's Moonhaven, Hallmark's Good Witch, CBC's Frankie Drake, Space/Syfy's Bitten, CTV's Cardinal, Lifetime's Last Chance for Christmas, and more.
MORE SPEAKERS TBA!
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Note that speaker lineup is subject to cancellation or change due to professional commitments.
Cancellations
Writer/Director/Showrunner
Fab is an award-winning creator, writer and director. Most recently he wrote, directed and was co-showrunner of SORT OF, a half-hour for CBC and HBOMax (Sphere Media Prodco) — which has gone on to win a Peabody Award, Canadian Screen Awards and is nominated for the prestigious Rose d’Or. Before that, he wrote and directed the critically acclaimed and award-winning short-form series Save Me (iThentic Prodco, CBCGem) which was nominated for a number of international festival awards and a Webby.
He has over 20 episodes of true crime under his belt as a director and has developed television for 20th Century Fox, Amazon, CBC, Showcase, and Global Television. As a playwright, he was nominated for a Dora Award (the Canadian ‘Tony’) for his play The Summoned. He also co-created and directed half-hour hit comedy Billable Hours (Temple Street Prodco) in which he starred.
As an actor you might also know him from projects like Lives Of The Saints opposite Sophia Loren, indie hit waydowntown, or the first Showtime Queer As Folk reboot. People are sometimes impressed when they find out he had an arc on the hit Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Cinematographer
Jude Abadi is a Canadian cinematographer currently based in Toronto. She is an Affiliate Member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC) and an IATSE Local 667 1st AC.
After getting her BFA in Interior Architecture, she became increasingly unfulfilled due to the limitations in the field. She was in search of a medium that would serve as an outlet for her creativity so she took up photography as a hobby. She dedicated her time photographing sporting events like the UFC. She also got involved in documenting the human cost of war by photographing and filming refugees in camps on the Syrian borders with Turkey and Lebanon while on humanitarian aid missions. She was shortlisted in the Fine Arts Photography Awards 2014-2015.
She started working on short films as a producer, electrician and grip and was the lead Production Designer on Abdullah, an Emirati feature film. These opportunities were rich and deepened her love of film but she needed more.
She moved to Los Angeles in 2016 and got her MFA in Cinematography. She continued to work regularly as both a first and second camera assistant on everything from TV shows and feature films to shorts, music videos and commercials. Her credits include LOL: Last One Laughing Canada, Big Brother Canada, Blood Pageant (featuring Snoop Dogg), and more. She has won several awards for her cinematography on the short film The End of the World.
