Our Team
The creators
Taelor Lewis-Joseph
Actress, communications specialist, and lover of toast, Taelor, is an ambitious Gemini with a Virgo moon who co-created How T.O. Art. How T.O. Art came from a place of just wanting to learn and share stories. Taelor has always had a love for and sense of responsibility to share with and uplift fellow creators. She is an advocate for BIPOC and Queer creators. She proudly sits on several Anti-Black Racism (ABR) as well as Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Boards at Ryerson University. When she's not colour-coding her Google calendar, Taelor is tending to her plant children, Fatimah, Joan, and Valentina.
“My favourite thing about art is the escape, confrontation and honesty that can come out of it.”
Amanda Ann-Min Wong
Amanda Ann-Min Wong is an award-winning film director, writer, sound artist, and musician; who needs to stay hydrated at all times because she’s a watery, watery Pisces. Her short films have been featured in the Toronto Star and CBC Arts; as well as nominated for awards such as the Best Canadian Short Award at VAFF, and the international Iris Prize in Cardiff. In her free time, Amanda loves rocking out with her band, Cutsleeve, and feeding her angst with salmon sashimi.
“Art reminds me of who I am, and who I want to be.”
The host
Naja Stanford
Naja Stanford is a Toronto-based actress and model with a background in theatre, and television. Naja has been featured in Degrassi: Next Class, Made Up and has also appeared in various commercials. Naja's charming personality and driven work ethic makes her a force to be reckoned with. When Naja is not performing on set, she is a full-time student at York University studying Law and Society in preparation for law school.
“My favourite thing about the arts is the creative freedom of expression.”
Our Crew
Alexandra Tse
Director of PhotographyAlexandra Tse is a filmmaker and cinematographer. She is a graduate of Ryerson University’s Film Studies program where she was awarded the Technicolour Award in Cinematography for her work in her final year. In addition, her work as a cinematographer has been recognized at festivals both in Canada and the USA.
Alana Raymond
Sound EditorAlana Raymond, is a multi-disciplinary artist with a background in visual art, dance, drama, music and film. She primarily works as a sound editor for both documentary and narrative films. Professionally, films she worked on have screened at TIFF (I Am, I Am), Hot Docs (Goli: A Tale of Threads), and internationally (Object of Merit, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival).
Kathryn Lyons
Picture EditorKathryn Lyons is a video editor based in Toronto. She is a graduate of Ryerson University's Image Arts program, where she specialized in post-production. Since graduating, Kathryn has been involved in a variety of projects as an Assistant Editor, most recently on the feature documentary Toxic Beauty (dir. Phyllis Ellis) and Big Brother Canada (Insight Productions).
Parnika Rajaghatta
Picture EditorParnika has gained immense experience as a director while studying Media Production at Ryerson. Her freelance work ranges from being a Director’s rep on Alessia Cara and Juanes’ music video “Querer Mejor”, project managing Ruth B’s music video “Slow Fade” to being a third-AD for The 410 CBC Gem web series. She was also featured on CBC news as a guest for advocating a mandatory high school curriculum on race.