Firecracker Department with Naomi Snieckus

Our guest this week is award-winning screenwriter, executive producer and founder of Ink Canada KAREN WALTON! She penned the original cult classic horror film, GINGER SNAPS, along with writing and co-executive producing Bell Media and BBC America’s hit series, ORPHAN BLACK. Credits include: Showtime’s QUEER AS FOLK,CTV’s FLASHPOINT and CBC’s WHAT’S IT LIKE BEING ALONE. Accolades include:the prestigious Margaret Collier Award,ACTRA Toronto’s Nell Shipman Award and TIFF's Special Jury Citation for

Our 12th RWN spotlight guest is writer, producer and crown attorney ARMIN SETHI! She wrote FUTURE SUPERHEROES, a short about children empowering each other to care for each other and the environment during COVID-19. She works closely with her sister Asis Sethi at Fly Away Films - writing together, the award-winning A BLOODY MESS a short about a young South Asian woman trying to normalize conversations about menstruation, and ROCK THE CRADLE a short about postpartum depression.

Our guest on the show this week is JAIME MOYER! She voiced April and Colleen on FOX TV’s BOB’s BURGER. Her recurring roles include:PEACOCK’s AP BIO, Netflix’s THE BIG SHOW SHOW, ABC’s MODERN FAMILY and Disney’s KC UNDERCOVER. She wrote for 3 seasons of Nickelodeon’s LEGO CITY ADVENTURES and is an alum of THE SECOND CITY-DETROIT. Jaime occasionally appears as Guillermo’s wife on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, and was awarded the sole prize of Maestro at the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival (Austin,Texas) in

Our guest on this week's show is Toronto-based actor-producer-advocate LEESA LEVINSON! She studied musical theatre at Wexford Collegiate, where she began displaying strange neurological symptoms at 16. and at 19, Leesa was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She consulted for the CRTC, the BBC, the Media Access Office of Hollywood, the SAG Disabilities Committee and is on ACTRA Toronto's DIVERSITY & INCLUSION COMMITTEE. Leesa’s credits include CBC and The CW’s CORONER and CTV’s JEFF LIMITED.

Our guest on the show this week is a Los Angeles-based actor, writer, and the co-host of the podcast, THE SCROLL DOWN- NICCOLE THURMAN! She is the voice of Jabberjaw, Squiddly Diddly and Dee Dee Sykes in HBO Max's JELLYSTONE. She is in Netflix’s GRACE AND FRANKIE, HBO’s A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW, SHRILL on Hulu and SUPERSTORE on NBC. She was also a correspondent on Comedy Central’s THE OPPOSITION WITH JORDAN KLEPPER. Niccole has written HBO Max's HAUTE DOG, Fox’s LET’S BE REAL and NBC's upcoming BA

Our 11th Reel Women’s Network spotlight is award-winning writer-director-producer PEARL GLUCK. Her first documentary feature film, DIVAN, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and opened theatrically at the Film Forum in NYC and it broadcasted on the Sundance Channel. THE TURN OUT is Pearl’s first fiction feature film won Best Debut Feature at the Toronto Female Eye Film Festival, and the Critic’s Choice Award at the Iowa International Film Festival.

Our guest on the show this week is New York-based comedy writer, actor, improviser KATE JAMES.Kate writes for Showtime's WORK IN PROGRESS, Comedy Central, NPR, Slate, The Second City, the band Phish and a ton of awards shows. Kate has appeared on TV shows including Netflix’s EASY, USA Network’s PLAYING HOUSE, Showtime’s SHAMELESS and WORK IN PROGRESS. Kate plays Tricia on the podcast HELLO FROM THE MAGIC TAVERN and is a regular contributor to the podcast TRUMPCAST.

Our guest on the show this week is writer-director-actor-producer MADELEINE SIMS-FEWER. Madeleine met Dusty Mancinelli at the 2015 TIFF Filmmakers’ Lab, and they founded DM FILMS. Their debut feature, VIOLATION, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where Madeleine was a TIFF Rising Star. It premiere internationally at Sundance. It has been nominated for 5 Canadian Screen Awards, including the John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award and Best Female Actor in a Leading Role.

Our guest this week is a queer, trans-feminine, Muslim playwright, performer and workshop facilitator BILAL BAIG. They make queerstory by becoming the first queer, trans-feminine, South Asian and Muslim performer in Canada to be cast in the lead role of a primetime TV series - on the new groundbreaking CBC and HBO Max original series SORT OF. They star as one of the first non-binary lead characters on North American mainstream network TV. Bilal is also SORT OF's Executive Producer, Writer and Co-Creator.

Our tenth Reel Women's Network Spotlight is MEOSHA BEAN. Meosha was voted the best upcoming director at the 2012 New Jersey Film Festival. Meosha directed: the doc THE UNTOLD STORY OF MARIANO MENDOZA, MISS PEPPER an award- winning short that got over 30K views in its first week, horror film DELUSION and ANATOMY OF AN ANTIHERO: REDEMPTION (available on RWN) which won Best Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards, the April Award at the New York Film Awards and the Best Action film at the Istanbul Film Awards.