Team

Virginia Thompson – Executive Producer, Co-Creator, Writer

President and CEO of Vérité Films, Virginia is an award-winning executive producer and TV series creator who has created and produced comedies, dramas, animated series, children’s and youth programming, documentaries, performing arts programming, and digital series for the Canadian and world markets in English and French. She’s developed some of the most iconic brands in the Canadian entertainment and cultural sector.

Virginia is Executive Producer of Canada’s #1 comedy brand, Corner Gas. The brand includes the highest-rated show in the history of CTV Comedy, Corner Gas Animated (48 eps); the 2016 Golden Screen Award winner for the highest-rated scripted program in Canada, Corner Gas: The Movie; and the highest-rated Canadian comedy of all time, Corner Gas (107 eps). All series stream on Crave in Canada and Amazon FreeVee in the US. Corner Gas and Corner Gas: The Movie stream on Samsung TV + in the UK.

Virginia is also Executive Producer of The Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (GGPAAs), celebrating Canada’s most outstanding performing artists in stage, music, dance, theatre, film, and television. 

Vérité has several more Canadian success stories. Virginia is Executive Producer/Co-Creator of the comedy series InSecurity (23 episodes, CBC), the award-winning youth dramatic series and e-zine renegadepress.com (53 episodes, Global, APTN), and the internationally acclaimed children’s series Incredible Story Studio (65 episodes, Disney, YTV, Nickelodeon). A Canada-Ireland co-production, Incredible Story Studio implemented a creative writing program for school children from across Canada, the UK, France and Germany, and made their funny, fictional stories into “movies” for television.

Virginia’s productions have won or been nominated for over 130 Awards, including an International Emmy, the Prix Jeunesse, the Golden Screen Award, and many Canadian Screen Awards. In 2012, she was inducted onto Ryerson’s School of Media Wall of Fame. In 2008, she won the WIFT Award for Creative Excellence in screen-based media. In 2006, Virginia was honoured with the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal.

Virginia and her partner Robert de Lint founded Vérité Films as a boutique production company committed to incubating authentic voices and building cross-platform brands around those voices to allow them to reach audiences everywhere.

Vérité has an outstanding team dedicated to ensuring each artist the company works with, and the productions that come from their collaborations, rings true to the artist’s voice, has a clear creative vision, is of exceptional quality, and is supported across all platforms.

“Parkside” Mike Renaud – Consulting Producer, Co-Creator

“Parkside” Mike Renaud is the owner of Hidden Pony Records & Management as well as consultant for Slaight Music, two of the premiere talent development companies in Canada. To-date, artists under Renaud’s guidance have been nominated for over 20 JUNO Awards, including three JUNO Award wins in the artist development categories. As one of Canadian’s top music managers, Parkside has been responsible for discovering and developing some of Canada’s best known and musically important as well as emerging artists. Some of those artists include Jeremy Fisher (Junior), Sum 41, The Dirty Nil, Said The Whale, Hannah Georgas, Odds, Jillea (recently signed to Universal Music), country singer Ryan Langdon, ‘post-grunge and glam pop’ act The Effens, Theo Tams and Moscow Apartment among many others.

The Kids-At-Home

Jeremy and Jazzy prompt audience engagement with call and response cues. The Kids-At-Home respond to the cues, thereby encouraging viewers to respond with them. Their voices are heard in the song choruses and viewers are invited to sing along as well.

The Kids-At-Home are performed by three groups of talented Canadian children: singers from the Dixon Hall Music School, the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, and Music for Young Children in Bedford, NS. Dixon Hall provides free music education and a cultural lifeline to families from all walks of life in the Regent Park and Moss Park areas of Toronto. The Canadian Children’s Opera Company provides training and performance opportunities to children’s choruses across Canada. Music for Young children provides music education that emphasizes the pleasure and joy of music.

Chris Morris – Head of Animation, Supervising Producer

Chris has enjoyed more than 20 wonderful years of experience working in the animation industry and has led projects of various sizes for most major North American broadcast networks including Nick, CBC, Disney, Teletoon, Cartoon Network and more. He has an impeccable record for delivering jobs on time and at the most demanding QC standards.

Chris previously led post-production for all TV and online content at famed Animation Studio Cuppa Coffee. Chris also directed animated web series for the breakout comedy Letterkenny as well as preschool shorts for Corus. Chris has also created a dozen short films for Sesame Street and his favourite letter is G.

Anisha Jamal-Cadena – Diversity and Educational Consultant

For the past 20 years, Anisha has worked with children from infancy to 12 years of age. Her career started in the diverse neighbourhoods of Scarborough, integrating developmentally appropriate play-based teaching for preschoolers while developing active summer programming for school-age children. 

Anisha’s work continued into urbanized Brampton where she worked for the Regional Child Care Centers as a certified High Scope Early Childhood Educator and Resource Specialist.  Anisha’s work with the Region of Peel also included working with Peel Children’s Services, where she developed and integrated an inclusive and responsive daily drop-in program for children 0-6 years old, who found themselves living in temporary housing situations within city run family and women shelters.  

In addition, Anisha’s expertise in emergent curriculum was transferred into a literacy-rich Kindergarten program, in which she taught for 7 years with the Peel District School Board.  Anisha continues to work as an Occasional Teacher where she supports the learning of children from Kindergarten to Grade 8, including Developmental Disabilities (DD classes) and rotary subjects such as gym, music and library.  

Anisha continues to be a Professor in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) program at Sheridan College, where over the past decade, she has developed innovative learning experiences that teach adult learners to create inclusive, curriculum-based programming for children and families. 

Cameile Henry – Diversity & Educational Consultant

Cameile Henry is an accomplished public speaker and a Professor of Early Childhood Education (ECE) at the Sheridan Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, where she has served for over 11 years. Prior to her joining the ECE program team at Sheridan, she was an ECE and Professor at George Brown College for 15 years.

While in her undergraduate studies, she participated in the Education for All Global Monitoring Report and special task force meeting on Early Childhood Care and Education with the United Nations in New York, where she assisted in the presentation of School Involvement of Marginalized Families. She is a facilitator for Circle of Security, an international program that supports parents and primary care providers with the tools to enhance building strong attachments with their children in their care. She was also featured in an article by the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario, ‘My Educational Journey: From ECE Diploma to Master’s Degree’.

Cameile’s interest in the global development of ECE played a role in the creation of two international practicum partnerships in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Caribbean. Through these initiatives Cameile has developed a strong understanding of cultural dynamics for students and educators that has benefitted children and families in several countries around the globe.

From 2010 to 2017 Cameile partnered with the Peel Children’s Aid Society as a foster parent to over 20 children from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and social and emotional challenges in her home.

Cameile currently performs children’s puppet shows focusing on self-esteem and empowerment. She also supervises and organizes summer camps in the GTA. Most recently she created a “Spring Break” virtual program for children that included science, math, literacy, and social skills activities. She also provides workshops for parents and those working with children. Some recent topics are: Supporting Children and Families in a Covid-19 Environment; Behaviour Guidance Strategies to Support Your Child’s Development; Bullying: The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander; and Understanding the Way our Children Learn (Exploring the 8 Styles of Learning).

Smiley Guy Studios – Animation

Smiley Guy Studios is an award-winning full-service production company with expertise in animation, design, writing, sound, music, and interactive media. Founded in 1998 by graduates of Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre, Smiley Guy Studios has since grown in size and capability, offering expertise in vector-based animation, computer-generated imagery, and multi-platform production. It produces its own original content while also collaborating with clients on a variety of animated TV, film, and new media projects.

Jason Hall – Animation Director

Jason Alexander Hall has been working in TV animation since 2004 and leading teams of animators since 2013. With a focus on teaching animators the tricks of the trade, he aspires to help elevate animators to reach new creative potentials and build a strong sense of teamwork. Jason has worked at a number of studios, most notably as an animation supervisor on Wild Kratts for 5 seasons. He now works at Smiley Guy Studios, leading a very talented crew to bring life to this super fun, creative musical show.

Aisha Ghali – Director, Pilot Episodes

Aisha Ghali is a cartoonist and filmmaker based in so-called Toronto. They have worked as a storyboard artist for television and feature film since graduating from Sheridan College in 2016. They also enjoyed a brief teaching stint at their alma mater. This is their first time directing a studio production.

Izzy Abreu – Character Concept Lead, Pilot Episodes

Izzy Abreu is a character designer in animation and an illustrator. From Toronto, Canada, currently based in Los Angeles, CA. Graduated in 2016 from Sheridan College with a BA in Animation, she has worked for multiple animation studios in Canada and the US, including Guru Studio, House of Cool, Warner Brothers, and Netflix Animation.

Cassie Pyatt – Producer, Writer

Cassie Pyatt is a writer, improviser and musician who has worked as a coordinator and production manager in the animation industry for over eight years. She began working in children’s television at Nelvana on Babarand the Adventures of Badou. Over the years she’s had the pleasure of working with studios across Canada including Atomic, Guru and Spin Master before finding her home at Vérité Films. She’s worked on Nickelodeon’s Emmy Award-winning, smash hit Paw Patrol and Disney’s Go Away Unicorn, everyone’s squishable Unicorn. Excited to make the leap into Prime Time animation, she became the Production Manager of the Canadian Screen Award-winning series Corner Gas Animated. In 2021, Cassie began writing for Jeremy and Jazzy Shorts and is loving combining her comedy, music and animation experience to the project.

Karen K. Burrows – Associate Producer, Writer

Karen holds an MPhil in Media and Cultural Studies from the University of Sussex, UK. She previously taught courses in film, media, and cultural studies there and during a Visiting Lectureship at the University of Brighton. Karen has spoken about Canadian television and pop culture on the Canadaland podcast and at events including San Diego Comic-Con. She has published on gender, sexuality, and representation on television.

A trained researcher and writer, Karen has been working in the production industry since 2012 and has worked with corporate clients including the Government of Alberta, Imperial Oil, Enerkem Alberta Biofuels, the Citadel Theatre, and NAIT. She was Associate Producer on Corner Gas Animated and Story Producer and Researcher for The 2021 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, which was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Variety or Entertainment Special. She also produced the 2022 GGPAAs on stage at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

Matt Ouimet – Sound Engineer, Music Director, Mixer

Matt is an Emmy-nominated composer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, engineer, producer and nice guy. He has written or currently writes feature music and score for Sesame Workshop, Disney, Nickelodeon, Teletoon, and more. He currently provides score and songs for Go Away, Unicorn! (Disney) and writes songs for Esme & Roy (HBO).

You can catch him playing live with various acts, including (most recently) Jeremy Fisher, Hawksley Workman, The Super Awesome Club, Friends on Friends.

For CBC

Swin Chang – Executive in Charge of Production, CBC Kids

Marie McCann – Senior Director, Children’s Content, CBC Kids

Sally Catto – General Manager, Entertainment, Factual, and Sports, CBC