As an actor, writer, director, producer, production designer and award-winning costume designer, Chrysanthi Zora Michaelides wears many hats. Ms. Michaelides creates content for theatre, television, film (factual and fiction), and for corporate TV commercials. At the age of 19, Ms. Michaelides co-wrote and acted in a theatrical play which toured theatres nationally, and was also performed to prisoners at the now defunct Kingston Penitentiary for Women, and at a youth correctional facility in Sherbrooke, Ontario. The play was directed by Katherine Merrielle and Pierre Tetrault and produced by Kevin Lee. It was made into a documentary film directed by Deepa Mehta and produced by Sunrise Films, and depicted the theatre troupe and their journey across Canada. As a teenager and into her early 20’s, Chrysanthi worked with Ida Carnevale, the founder of Kensington Carnival, with clowns extraordinaire Richard Pochinko, Ian Wallace, and Philippe Gaulier, which earned her an acceptance to the École internationale de Jacques Lecoq, in Paris. Chrysanthi studied acting in London, England, and at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC., and has since performed in films and in television series, as well live on stages across the globe as an actor, dancer, Buffon clown, and wrestler. As a director/producer, Ms. Michaelides co-run VOICE (Violence Overcome in Creative Ensemble), an award-winning theatre and film production house working with survivors of violence, together with the company’s founder and executive director, Katherine Merrielle. In 2005 Chrysanthi was awarded a humanitarian award from Amnesty International’s Alex Neve for Amnesty Cafe, an educational arts, culture and media program she founded and created for AI. In 2007 Ms. Michaelides obtained a grant to create content in the Middle East and in North Africa, and coupled with her interviews of key political leaders in the region garnered her a Humanitarian Global Journalist Press Pass which allowed her to continue her work when she returned to North America. In 2009 Chrysanthi was selected by ReelWorld Film Festival as an Emerging20, a designation awarded to the top 20 filmmakers in Canada. In 2015 Ms. Michaelides obtained a post-graduate degree in filmmaking, where she graduated with honours and received the Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Dean’s Award for her work as a producer during her graduate studies. Chrysanthi has developed and taught educational mixed media arts and culture programs at Harbourfront Centre, the AGO, and at schools across Canada. Hailing from Cyprus, an island not only known for its crystalline beaches but also for its history of invasion and occupation, Chrysanthi is a lifelong activist who has spent her teen and adult years producing social justice-centred art, films, mixed media art exhibits, conferences, concerts and festivals, and is a founding producer of Artists Against War, Canadians Advocating for Political Participation, and the G20 Legal Defence Fundraiser, as well she is the founding producer of the Queen’s Park Peace Festival, and the United Nations International Ceasefire Concert, among many other high-profile events. Since 2002, Chrysanthi has been sitting on the steering committee of the annual benefit concert, Riverdale Share Concert, and since 2017 has been on the RSC Foundation’s Board of Directors. Ms. Michaelides’ work goes beyond the arts: she also has a marketing, teaching, social work, trauma counselling, early childhood education, and birth doula background, which inform her work as an artist and content creator. Chrysanthi has moderated a filmmakers’ panel at York University’s Rebels With A Cause Film Festival, and served as a judge for the CaribbeanTales Film Festival, and is now thrilled and honoured to be a judge with the BIPOC Film Festival.