BIPOC TV & FILM Writing for Kids’ TV Workshop Returns for 4th Year
BIPOC TV & FILM’s, Writing for Kids’ TV program (formerly known as the Kids/Children’s Media TV Writing Bootcamp), is back for its 4th round.
This year, 25 Black, Indigenous and racialized screenwriters and content creators from across Canada will gain an in-depth overview of the business and craft of writing for children’s TV, starting in February and ending in May, 2022. The popular career-launching program will cover story structure, standards and practices, buyers and genres, demographics, live-action vs. animation, pitching, how to take a meeting, general industry etiquette, and will introduce participants to network executives and kids’ content producers from Canada and the US.
With weekly presentations by award-winning writer and story editor, John May (The Magic School Bus, How to Be Indie, Sesame Street, 16 Hudson), participants will experience real-world writing deadlines to prepare them for working in the kids’ TV industry.
In years two and three of the program, ten participants (Taylor Annisette, Alex Cabrera, Daniel Fernandes, Bita Joudaki, Sonia Leo, Cheyenne Lynn, Rabiya Mansoor, Robyn Matuto, Parth Parikh, and Tony Tran) were selected for placements in development and production rooms at Wildbrain. In 2021, thanks to funding support from the Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, the City of Toronto, Youth Media Alliance and our donors, 10 Indigenous participants received stipends of $1000 each in an effort to further reduce barriers to access and allow for their full participation. Three Indigenous creative leaders and filmmakers—including former BIPOC TV & FILM board member Roger Boyer, Jeph Ree, and Amber Sekowan-Daniels—provided additional mentorship support.
New in 2022: Teaching Assistants / Peer Mentors
A new feature of the program is the addition of teaching assistants or peer mentors. Each TA-Peer Mentor is assigned a group of up to 6 participants who they will meet up with weekly in virtual breakout rooms and provide additional support in completing assignments and debriefing John’s weekly presentations.
Rabiya Mansoor (she/they) is a Pakistani-Calgarian comedian, writer, actor, producer, and recovering lawyer. She’s helped develop shows at CBC Gem, 9 Story, Big Bad Boo, and more. She’s a writer for Wildbrain's Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City, Shaftesbury Kid's POV:Me, and is a story coordinator for Du Me a Favor (Crave/New Metric Media). Her web series projects in development include: Get Up, Aisha (iThentic/Window Dreams Productions) and Sexcapades (Adani Pictures). Her comedy project, Layla is Relevant, was a 2021 Breakthroughs Film Festival Pitch Competition Finalist and JFL ComedyPro Stand Up & Pitch Finalist. Rabiya’s sketch comedy troupe, the Don Valley Girls, received a Sketch Comedy Project Fund grant for their upcoming first sketch revue (WhyNot Theatre's RISER 2022 Festival) and she was a member of the Second City Family Company for What the Elf?!. She is an alumnus of Second City’s Bob Curry Fellowship for emerging, diverse comedic voices and has performed at the Toronto, Chicago, and Montreal Sketch Comedy Festivals, most recently as a drag king solo act. She's participated in playwright units at Expect Theatre, Driftwood Theatre, and Tarragon Theatre and her play, A Jam Kind of Day, was digitally staged in Driftwood Theatre’s Digital Short Play Festival in Fall 2021. Her TYA improv show, Education Know-It-All, was commissioned for Theatre Direct’s 2021 Forward March Festival and she is a graduate of the BIPOC TV & Film Kids TV Bootcamp.
Vanessa Magic is a filmmaker and screenwriter whose stories highlight Black female protagonists and leave the viewer learning something magical. Her experimental Afrosurrealist short film Oneironautic was an official selection at the Cannes Short Film Festival, Victoria Film Festival and The Reelworld Film Festival where she was nominated for Stand Out Director and Writer for a short film. She recently directed an episode of True Dating Stories (LaRue/CBC) and is developing an Afrofuturist kids S.T.E.A.M show called This Is Earth. She is currently working on a short film called The Absurdity of the Black Female Experience.
Leonard Chan is a writer/comedian from Toronto, Canada. As a comedian, he has been heard on CBC's The Debaters, Laugh Out Loud, and Sirius/XM radio and seen on stage at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, the Halifax Comedy Festival, JFL42, StandUp NBC in New York, and Just For Laughs in Montreal. As a writer, he’s spent a little time in the writer’s room for international hit Kim’s Convenience, 16 Hudson, and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. He also has two degrees in engineering which he uses only as punchlines and a totally legal number of cats.
Taylor Annisette is a multi-talented creative, working as an artist, animator, writer, and creator, and she has been working in 2D animation and children's television for a decade. She has worked in almost every stage of animation - from storyboards to art directing - on shows like Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood, Wild Kratts, and Blue's Clues & You. Her short film about growing up mixed race, Fitting In, has been screened in over 20 film festivals around the world, including the Ottawa International Film Festival, in which it was officially selected for the Children's Competition. She is a proud graduate of BIPOC TV & Film’s Kids TV Writing Bootcamp and she is currently working as a freelance screenwriter full-time, as well as developing her own original animated children’s show with 9 Story Media Group. Some of the shows she has written for include a Peanuts project with WildBrain, a preschool show with Nickelodeon, a preschool show for Disney Jr, and two animated shows with Big Bad Boo. Taylor is always seeking new ways to create and tell stories in her own authentic voice, and is especially fond of comedies with heart.
We are grateful to our 2022 jury (which included our four TAs/Peer Mentors, along with program alum Richard Young and BIPOC TV & FILM founder and board chair, Nathalie Younglai) and our program staff, Adeela Ahmad and Nedda Sarshar — who are both alumni of the program.