Toronto

Taya Mikado

Taya Mikado (she/her) is a mixed-race Japanese-Canadian Yonsei hailing from Southern Alberta but currently anchored in Tkaronto. She dabbles in poetry, prose and digital art while working towards becoming an innovative and compassionate lawyer. Losing her father to suicide at 13, and her mother to a motorbike accident at 18, has given Taya significant insight […]

Michelle Yagi

Michelle (she/her) is an international producer and arts leader with diverse experience working for dozens of theatres, festivals, dance companies and entertainment agencies across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. She has held a variety of different roles in development, marketing and project management, and has worked with companies such as Shakespeare’s Globe, […]

Lara Okihiro

Dr. Lara Okihiro is a yonsei writer, researcher, and educator of mixed Japanese Canadian heritage. Growing up in the diverse, working-class Dixon Road neighbourhood in Toronto, she was close to her Japanese Canadian grandparents and often visited her Anglo-Irish Canadian grandmother on her rural Ontario farm. Though Lara did not like reading as a kid, […]

Alexa Hatanaka

Alexa Hatanaka engages in time-intensive, historic processes connected to her Japanese heritage that support her thinking around community-building, environment, and honouring evolving cultural practices such as relief-printmaking, papermaking and kamiko, the practice of sewing garments out of konnyaku starch-strengthened washi (Japanese paper). Her seminal work “Hazmat Suit (unborn/ reborn tsunami)” was acquired by the National […]

Leanne Toshiko Simpson

Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a mixed-race Yonsei writer and psychiatric survivor from Scarborough, Ontario. She is a graduate of UTSC Creative Writing and the University of Guelph’s MFA program. Currently, she is a doctoral student in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto, studying the intergenerational impact of Japanese Canadian internment. She teaches courses […]

Hiromi Okuyama

Hiromi Okuyama was born and raised in Toronto. Her father is Shotokan Karate Master Kancho T. Okuyama who is originally from Hachijojima Island in Japan. Her mother Belle is originally from Hong Kong. Hiromi is an Actress, Martial Artist and Content Creator. The bulk of her acting work is in commercials with over 30 years […]

Hiroki Tanaka

Hiroki Tanaka is a musician, artist and writer born in Toronto, Ontario. He grew in Toronto’s east end, in the area formerly known as “East York”. He attended Concordia University in Montreal to study Creative Writing and Music, where he would focus on poetry and songwriting. This is also where he initially met members of […]

Miyeko Ferguson

Miyeko Ferguson is a Tkaronto / Toronto based dance artist. She graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Performance Dance program. She has worked with choreographers such as Laurence Lemieux, James Kudelka, Peggy Baker, Naishi Wang, Jera Wolfe, Kate Hilliard, Jennifer Nichols, Julia Aplin, and Vicki St. Denys. She has performed with Compagnie de la Citadelle, Canadian […]

Douglas Haruki Oyama Peerless

Douglas is a Nisei 二世 (2nd generation) Japanese-Canadian actor, writer, and storyteller from Toronto, Ontario. He has a wide range of performance experience including musical theatre, children’s theatre, voice acting, and Shakespeare. He studied theatre at the University of Victoria’s Phoenix Theatre, graduating with his bachelor’s degree in performance. Favourite roles include Max in The […]

Mayumi Lashbrook

Lashbrook performs with an “electric” and “life-giving” connection (The Fringe Review, John Hinton). Mayumi Lashbrook is a mixed race Japanese Canadian settler from Tkaronto who seeks to expose, challenge, and rectify systems of oppression by creating innovative, introspective and inclusive dance theatre. Her primary practises span performance, choreography, education and Artistic Direction. She performs as […]

Suzanne Liska

Suzanne Liska is a teacher, choreographer, dancer and researcher specializing in somatic practices, contemporary dance/theatre, Japanese artforms and physical partnering. She has choreographed and danced in works for CanAsian KickStart, DanceWorks CoWorks, Dusk Dances, and Dance Matters, receiving grants and awards through the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, York University and SSHRC (Canadian Graduate […]

Mio Sakamoto

Mio Sakamoto is a Toronto based performer, choreographer, and certified Kaeja Elevation teacher originally from Japan. Sakamoto graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 2017. In 2018, she trained at B12 Festival and Nuova Officinal Della Danza. Over the past few years, she has performed (selected) Crépuscule by Marie-Josée Chartier, October Sky by […]

Will Shintani

A Yonsei, Will was born and raised in Toronto, ON, Canada. Mom is Japanese-Canadian, and Dad is Ecuadorian. Using both traditional and digital illustration, Will strives to create artworks that examine the human condition. He likes to engage, study and analyze people. Will says, “It’s about asking questions as much as it is about answers.” […]

David Kai

David Kai grew up in Toronto as a Sansei attending the Centennial-Japanese United Church where he was highly involved in its music ministry. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto, the Humber College music program where he specialized in arranging and composing, and The Centre for Christian Studies. Commissioned as a diaconal minister […]

Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野

Nikkei-Canadian settler Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野 (they/them) is a queer, trans non-binary, interdisciplinary creator-performer based in Tkarón:to (Toronto). Heralded as “a force of nature” (Toronto Star) and “an artist with extraordinary things to say” (The Globe and Mail) Teiya comes from a background of over a decade of singing both traditional and contemporary operatic roles […]