The National Coaching Program is designed to provide professional development guidance by experienced industry professionals, to early stage web series producer/creators, through customized one-on-one confidential coaching sessions.

Objectives

• to provide access and connections to a network of expert professionals
• to encourage knowledge-sharing in the web series community

Benefits 

Participants will have access to guidance and advice from expert professionals in areas in which they themselves identify a need or an interest, benefiting from the experience of others. Coaches will also benefit by meeting new talent and developing potential future opportunities for production.

Eligible participants

The program is designed to provide tailored professional development opportunities to new, emerging and early stage producer/creators of web series by experienced and engaged producer/creators of web series, through one-on-one confidential sessions.

Eligible early-stage participants must be a Member of WSC to qualify for free access to this program. They must not have produced more than two web series.  Students with appropriate production training are eligible. 

Only available to WebSeries Canada Members.
For free access become a member!

1. Applications – coaches will review and provide feedback and advice on funding applications before they are submitted
2. Screenwriting – coaches will review scripts and offer advice at development and/or production stages
3. Trailer production – coaches will provide production guidance
4. Business Plans – coaches will advise on corporate strategies 
5. Production Management – coaches will review financing plans, budgets, schedules and provide feedback
6. Legal – coaches will advise on what to look out for how to read contracts
7. Marketing and promotion – coaches will advise on strategies
8. Distribution and sales – coaches will advise on strategies
9. Pitching Skills – coaches will provide advice and feedback
10. Finding a Producer; bridging the gap with a writer/creator – coaches will facilitate introductions or provide directions for appropriate connections with producers who can help get projects made

Lisa Baylin
Director, Scripted Development

An Emmy Award winning creative producer with over ten years of scripted development, and production experience, Lisa Baylin currently manages the scripted development team at Cineflix Productions.  Baylin’s series have been showcased on Hulu, CBC, Bell Media, and Funny or Die, and she has partnered with the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, Disney and Universal Music to create original works. Selected award-winning series include the Canadian Screen Award-winning series Save Me SI & SII and Space Riders SI & SII, the Streamy Award-winning series Epic Studios, and the Emmy Award winning series Guidestones SI & SII. Since 2012, Lisa has been a consultant for the Canadian Media Producers Association and participated in collective bargaining talks between the CMPA and ACTRA, DGC and WGC.

Leah Rifkin
Founder, Scarlet Lens Productions (Director/Producer/Screenwriter)

Leah Rifkin is an award-winning director, producer, and author of the book Beyond The Director’s Chair. She has directed and produced web series, short films, music videos, and her latest digital content venture: The Sonic Room, Canada’s #1 music variety show. 

Leah began her directing career in 2013 in the digital space and directed two seasons of Out Of Frame, an award-winning edutainment web series for kids. Leah’s film directorial debut was in 2017 with the 50 minute short film, A Last Wish. She was the director of the short film, Dinner With Bernice, which was an Official Selection in the 2018 Toronto Shorts International Film Festival. 

In 2019, Leah was a finalist for Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative. She was runner-up of Armoza Formats’ Formagination Pitch Competition at Realscreen West (2019) and a 2022 finalist for the same pitch competition. Leah and her creative partner, Sonja Verpoort, were runners-up for the Junior Entertainment Talent Slate Initiative in 2021. Leah is the President of WebSeries Canada and is the Festival Director for T.O. Webfest. 

Tanya Hoshi
Filmmaker

Tanya Hoshi is a Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto, who has built a portfolio of award-winning narrative web series and documentary films. For the past 9 years, Tanya has focused her career path towards strategic storytelling, landing her a coveted role as Head of Brand at Ownr – an RBCx Venture, and formerly Lead Producer at Shopify. Tanya’s productions have been viewed globally by millions of aspiring entrepreneurs, broadcast on NBC, and won a Telly Award.

Determined to pursue creativity outside of the corporate world, Tanya has additionally produced her own independent projects by securing over a million dollars in financing for her projects via financers such as Telefilm, Ontario Creates, IPF, Ontario Arts Council, Inspirit Foundation, and Hot Docs Cross Currents. Tanya made her directorial debut with the web series Blackout which won Best Horror Series at WebFest Berlin. Tanya also produced the documentary Turning Tables, which was acquired by CNN’s Great Big Story. Tanya’s films and web series have been acquired by the likes of West Jet, CNN, Alaska Airlines, Tubi TV, and TIFF to name a few.

Lauren Evans
Producer, Short Form Series

Lauren is an award-winning Producer of digital short-form series. Her work in the digital space includes the series Homeschooled, Barbelle Season 2, All for One, & The March Family Letters. Outside of the short-form web series space, Lauren is a Producer for a leading animation studio, providing support in both production and development, and has led the company’s commitment to innovation and its expansion into developing & producing Short-Form Digital (both animated and live-action), and Interactive Digital content.

Lauren has been featured in the CMPA’s Indiescreen magazine as one of Canada’s “Next Wave” of creators to watch and was selected as the 2018 WIFT & William F. White Production Manager Mentorship delegate. Lauren was also the  President of the Independent Web Creators of Canada for the 2017-2019 term, a volunteer-run non-profit organization focused on elevating independent Canadian digital creators and hosts of the annual T.O. Webfest.

Courtney Wolfson
Production Head

Courtney Wolfson is an independent media content producer born and raised in Toronto, with a passion for supporting the independent creator community, and expertise in animation production. Working with leading industry houses DHX, Cuppa Coffee, and Marblemedia, she coordinated several series for major television networks before moving on to Production Manage interactive projects for convergent series, and then feature films for AIC Studios and Lakeside Animation. In 2009, she began producing web series of various scales and obtained funding through the Independent Production Fund.

In 2014 she joined the board of directors of the Independent Web Creators of Canada, and began co-producing the annual multi-day event T.O. Webfest, Toronto’s premiere web content festival, where she consistently implemented efficient budgeting and scheduling to maximize results for 4 consecutive years.

Now focused on producing in the animation industry, she uses her business-savvy experience to foster partnerships and create meaningful content for all audiences as the Head of Production at Lakeside Animation, on international and domestic co-productions of features, short films and series.

Jay Ferguson
Writer, Producer, Director

Jay Ferguson is an Emmy award winning writer, producer, and director. He has spent much of his career trailblazing methods of online content creation and distribution. His series Guidestones was one of the first online series to reach a global audience. Wired Magazine proclaimed; “Guidestones promises to raise the bar for the web series genre…”. 

Jay also helped launch the Blackpills platform which was the largest budgeted European digital series provider created. Jay also works extensively in commercial and feature film production.

Mariah Owen
Actor, Director, Writer & Producer, GTE Productions

Mariah Owen is an award-winning, multi-hyphenate actor, creator and filmmaker who founded her Webby-honoree, production company GTE Productions, at the age of 21, and has had films play at some of today’s top festivals; SXSW, Sitges, Cannes & can be found on Amazon, Apple, CBC Gem and more.

Most recently, she directed-wrote-produced and starred in Disconnected which was bought by CBC and streams on TV and on CBC Gem. Her next film Scrambled is set to premiere at SXSW 2023, stars and was written/directed by frequent collaborator Leah McKendrick. The film was just bought globally by Lionsgate and stars Ego Nwodim, Andrew Santio, June Diane Raphael and more.

She’s a 4x RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards nominee and a recipient of the IPF Producer Bursary with her show #SingleBecause for the 2020/2021 Banff World Media Festival. Furthermore, she was the producer on Underpaint, one of only 7 films selected by Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent 2022 showcase at Cannes Film Festival and produces the award show and gala for Buffer Festival.

Previously she was the 2019 Executive Director of T.O. Webfest and Director of Industry Programming. She’s currently in development for the digital comedy Ran & Jaden at CBC and writing her first feature as a writer/director. More than anything, she’s a proud dog Mom to a rescue named Mammoth.

Lauren Corber
Emmy-nominated producer, Loco Motion Pictures

Lauren Corber is an Executive Producer and President at LoCo Motion Pictures, an International-Emmy nominated production company specializing in award-winning scripted content, including the International Emmy-nominated comedy series, How to Buy a Baby, tween action and adventure series Detention Adventure, comedy series My 90-Year-old Roommate, and comedy series The Communist’s Daughter. 

A recovering entertainment lawyer, Lauren is Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Media Producers Association and an alumnus of the CFC Producers’ Lab, National Screen Institute and Bell Media Executive Producer Accelerator Lab.

Shabnam Rezaei

Shabnam Rezaei, Co-Founder Big Bad Boo Studios Shabnam founded Big Bad Boo Studios to produce and distribute quality family programming. Shabnam has produced and directed Hulu Original Series “The Bravest Knight”, winner of 2020 GLAAD Award. She has also created and directed original shows such as “16 Hudson” (Amazon Prime/TVOKids), climate change series “Galapagos X” (TVOKids, Knowledge Kids, RadioCanada, Mediacorp), mini-series “Lili & Lola”(Oznoz/ICI TV), and musical series “ABC with Kenny G” (TVOKids, Radio-Canada).

Shabnam started her career producing series “Mixed Nutz”, and her first creation was “1001 Nights”, currently airing in 80 countries on Disney, Teletoon, Discovery Kids, Gloob Brazil, RTBF Belgium, and MTV3 Finland. Based in Vancouver and New York, the company’s own streaming channel Oznoz provides cartoons in 10+ languages including Thomas and Friends, Bob the Builder, Babar and more. She has been featured on CBC, CNN, Forbes, BBC, FOX, the New York Times and NPR. She speaks English, German, Persian, French, and Spanish.

James Stewart
Producer/Writer

James Stewart was the creative force behind the 3D version of Werner Herzog’s CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, a film that won the 2010 Lumière Award for Best 3D Documentary, a film that regularly makes the lists of All-time Best 3D films and was described by The Guardian as “the reinvention of the cinema medium.”

A TED speaker and East Timor advocate, James has twice been awarded for his directing work supporting PTSD awareness among first responders. More recently James worked with Oprah creating Elliot Page’s first ever interview – an intimate virtual experience connecting 6 times zones and 3 cites (GLADD Award winner). James produced and directed the 6-episode Season 2 of his historical drama series CHATEAU LAURIER which was nominated for both the 2019 CSA and WGC awards. Other 2021 projects include BET ON YOURSELF a 12 x 60:00 series with Fred Van Vleet and THINK – a 90-minute branded content film about technology shot across Canada. 

James is winner of the 2019 Telefilm Canada New Voices Award and is a writer/director best known for his award-winning film FOXED! which has over 30 million views and opened #1 on iTunes.

Maude Isabelle Delagrave
Entertainment & Literary Lawyer

Maude Isabelle Delagrave is a lawyer specializing in entertainment and literary law. In 2015, she opened her own practice on the strength of her background as a professor, artist’s agent, and vice-president of legal and commercial affairs in a television and movie production company. She assists a rich plethora of creatives in the implementation of their projects, day in and day out.
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Maude Isabelle Delagrave est une avocate spécialisée en droit du divertissement et en droit littéraire. Forte d’un riche parcours qui l’a amenée à travailler comme vice-présidente aux affaires légales et commerciales dans une compagnie de production en cinéma et télévision, agente d’artistes et professeure, elle crée sa propre pratique en 2015. Depuis, elle accompagne chaque jour de nombreux créateurs dans la mise en œuvre de leurs projets.

Kate Green
Director/Producer

Kate Green is the creator, director and producer of NarcoLeap a sci-fi web series which first aired on TELUS OptikTV, CBC GEM. Season one of NarcoLeap garnered a Canadian Screen Award nomination, a Writers’ Guild of Canada nomination, and three Leo Award nominations and won “Best Sci-Fi” at Miami Web Fest, Baltimore Next Media Web Fest and the Asia Web Awards. With over 600k channel views and a 2.3 million social media reach the series was green-light for a second season.

NarcoLeap Season two was one of the first female lead, indie, BC-based projects to go back to production after COVID. Released on Highball TV to enthusiastic audiences and was also nominated for its 2nd Canadian Screen Award for Best Web Program or Series and six Leo Award nominations winning Best Web Series, Male and Female Performances.

Kate has also worked on numerous programs in lifestyle and factual television as a producer or director. Her work has aired on various networks such as HGTV, W Network, CBC, History, Fuel TV, and Slice. Kate’s first documentary, Not A Stranger, won the “Audience Choice Award” at the Vancouver Short Film Festival and was nominated for “Best ‘Made in Canada’ Short” at Northwestfest. Kate’s second documentary, Melting Stars, won “Best Short” at the International Wildlife Film Festival. Kate’s latest short film, a zombie western titled Murphy’s Law recently aired on CBC and CBC GEM and won “Best Horror Thriller” at the Wild Bunch Film Festival.

Annelise Larson
Digital Strategist & Audience Development Mentor for Media

AnneliseLarson comes from a background as an independent producer, with training at such prestigious institutions as the Canadian Film Centre (Producer’s Lab) and Banff Centre for the Arts (Electronic and Film Media). Since 1995 she has been working in the field of online marketing and has always been an avid gamer and consumer of digital content.

She works extensively with government organizations and production companies in the film, television and interactive industries in North America. Her focus is helping content creators and storytellers to use the digital opportunity to define, find, attract and engage their audiences and work toward strategic and sustainable business models.

She has sat on the Interactive Fund jury for BC Film + Media (now Creative BC), the Experimental Stream jury for the CMF (both the Innovation & Experimentation and Commercial Programs), has taught across the country on behalf of such organizations as Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Film Centre, the CMPA, and Women in Film, and is a highly sought after speaker for media festivals and conferences.

Annelise has developed and implemented marketing strategies and gathered and analyzed online data for digital and screen media products as diverse as social TV apps, transmedia experiences, web series, feature films, television series and production companies themselves. Her online course Becoming a Storypreneur has been taught to media storytellers across Canada and in conjunction with Boost Hbg in Sweden and her podcast STORY+AUDIENCE with screenwriter Jill Golick can be found on all major podcasting platforms.

Annelise has also recently launched a new digital marketing online course for media in conjunction with the National Screen Institute.

Jill Golick
Showrunner/Writer

Jill Golick is an award-winning writer-showrunner-producer with substantial experience in children’s, drama, soap, and interactive.  She is best known for the internationally-acclaimed digital detective series Ruby Skye P.I. which she created, financed, wrote, produced, promoted and distributed for three seasons. Currently, Jill devotes a portion of her time to helping a new generation of storytellers to tell their stories. Fascinated by how streaming, bingeing and fan culture are changing how we watch, Jill works one-on-one with writers, producers and creators, helping them develop series for modern audiences. Jill is particularly interested in unheard stories and her coaching clientele includes Indigenous, Asian, bi-racial, neurodivergent and nonbinary writers.

Katie Uhlmann
Actor, Director, Writer, Stand-up Comedian

Katie Uhlmann is an actor, director, writer, stand-up comedian, and CEO of the production company, Katie Chats Inc.

Katie began to pursue a career in the arts after completing a degree in Drama and Psychology at Queen’s University and a summer program in Entertainment and Media Management at the UCLA Anderson School of Business. She is a recipient of the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award for Community service that was presented to her by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; primarily for her work building an orphanage in Honduras.

She is best known for directing and starring in her award-winning digital series MY ROOMMATE’S AN ESCORT, as well as her talk show, KATIE CHATS, where she interviewed over 3000 professionals in the film and television industry. She is the Talent Producer of CHATEAU LAURIER, a digital series that is currently nominated for 2  Canadian Screen Awards and 50+ awards at festivals around the world.

She was a recipient of the 2018 IPF bursary for Emerging Digital Producers at the Banff World Media Festival; and was a nominee for the Toronto Arts Council Emerging Artist Award. Katie is a Vice President on the board to the Independent Web Creators of Canada; and is also involved in the women’s committee at ACTRA, where she has lobbied politicians on behalf of artists, and child performers.

As an actor she has appeared in over 50 television shows and films, including CBC’s WORKIN’ MOMS and Hulu/Family Channel’s HOLLY HOBBIE, Burt Reynolds’s last film, DEFINING MOMENTS, and Global/NBC’s NURSES. Most recently Katie appeared in CBC’s PRETTY HARD CASES.

Claire Dion

Claire Dion held strategic positions in the development of the film/tv and digital industries in Quebec for 30 years. She was the associate director of the Independent Production Fund (IPF) in Quebec, dedicated to the development and funding of webseries, for 15 years. 

She was also central to the interactive innovation and creative processes at Bell Fund as its Quebec Director. As a manager of these Funds, she fostered the emergence of new talents throughout her career. She holds a Master’s degree in film studies from USC (university of Southern California).

Charlie David Lubiniecki
Producer/Director & CEO of Border2Border Entertainment

Charlie Lubiniecki is a producer/director and CEO of Border2Border Entertainment which produces and promotes a unique brand of award-winning, critically acclaimed film, television and digital projects for diverse, underserved audiences made by people with lived experience – women, 2SLGBTQ+ and people with disabilities as key participants in what Border2Border Entertainment creates.

He has been selected as the Canadian Filmmaker in Focus by the Kashish Film Festival in Mumbai, India, an invited guest of the Canadian embassy in South Africa to share his documentary on HIV+ youth, executive produced the documentary film Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride; a global look at pride celebrations and winner of multiple awards including the HBO Best Doc award at the Miami International LGBT Film Festival. 

Border2Border Entertainment is a certified supplier and member of the Canadian Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the Canadian Media Producers Association and a signatory producer with ACTRA. 

Mitchel Fleming
Entertainment Lawyer

Part of Toronto’s newest cohort of entertainment lawyers, Mitchel Fleming brings to his practice a wealth of entertainment experience. In addition to years of recording and performing as a professional musician, Fleming has an established track record working with industry professionals, including musicians, visual artists and filmmakers. 

In addition to growing his legal practice, Fleming prioritizes teaching and publishing in the areas of law, technology and the arts. Fleming has been a guest lecturer at the McGill Faculty of Music and Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Faculty of Music. Fleming’s scholarship has also been published in several noteworthy Canadian publications, including the LexisNexis’ Canadian Commercial Law Guide and Internet & E-Commerce Law in Canada, the McGill Centre for Intellectual Property Policy, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review and the Canadian Journal of Law and Technology (forthcoming).

Fleming has also worked in a variety of areas, including Canada’s nascent psychedelics industry, the practical and ethical challenges of artificial intelligence and the ever-evolving cryptocurrency and NFT space. Staying abreast of developments in the Canadian commercial landscape is critical to Fleming’s professional success.

Fleming also makes time to support those within Canada’s Indigenous community.

Robert Watson

Robert Watson is an award-winning playwright, performer, fragrance aficionado extraordinaire and proclaimed an “LGBTQ+ voice in comedy you should know” by CBC Arts. A two time Toronto Dora award nominee for Outstanding New Play for Young Audiences, Robert received a Harold Award in 2017 for his contributions to the Toronto theatre community.

Robert is also the creator of the super gay web series A Gay Victorian Affair, winner of 4 Canadian Comedy Awards in 2019 and Best LGBTQ Web Series at both Rio de Janeiro and Baltimore web festivals. Featured in Indiewire’s Top 5 Web Series of 2018, A Gay Victorian Affair was an official selection for NYC Webfest, HollyWeb, Miami, London, Sydney, Rio & Seoul Web Festivals, among others. It also screened at TIFF Bell Light Box as part of T.O. Webfest and was featured at Just For Laughs in Montreal as part of the 2019 Stand Up & Pitch competition. It has over 3 million views on its YouTube channel.

Romeo Candido

Romeo is a dynamic multi-disciplinary Filipino Canadian award winning story teller with experience in narrative and factual storytelling for film, television, advertising, theatre and digital platforms.

A writer, director, and musician, his creative catalogue of work comprising musicals, horror, and comedy is a unique adventure. What else would you expect from the first Filipino born in Newfoundland?

His genre-hopping career has been weaved into the fabric of Reel Asian, from his first feature film Lolo’s Child (1999) to the horror film Ang Pamana: The Inheritance (2007) to the bring-down-the-house live performance of the web musical Prison Dancer (2012) to his numerous short films in between.

While we’ve recently seen exciting work from emerging Filipinx Canadian artists, Candido was an original. But like us, he’s far from done, as we feature Topline (2022) with a one-time-only live performance of his latest musical series.

Johannie Deschambault

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After graduating from L’inis in 2014, Johannie founded SPORT, a production company focusing on works arising from creative strength and audacity. She produced the award winning short film Just me and you (Iris for best short fiction film, Ours de Cristal at the Berlinale, National Grand Prize at the REGARD Festival), as well as three seasons of the successful web series Mouvement Deluxe. (Numix and Olivier prize for the best fictional web series, nominations and prizes at Gémeaux, selection at the Annecy international animation festival). Over the past 8 years, she has specialized in fiction by producing content for television, web and cinema.