Here are Toronto’s most inspiring women of 2023 in film and TV

With the end of the year upon us, we’re taking the time to honour some of the most inspiring women of 2023. Despite an actors’ and writers’ strike, the year has been filled with incredible artistry  — here are the most inspiring women in film and TV, from directors to actors, in Toronto.  You can find the rest of the list of Toronto’s most inspiring women of 2023 here. 

Keris Hope Hill

The young Mohawk actor starred in the powerful Crave and APTN series Little Bird this year, about the Sixties Scoop in Canada, at just eight years old.

Amrit Kaur

After her breakout role in Mindy Kaling’s The Sex Lives of College Girls, the actor stunned in queer coming-of-age film The Queen of My Dreams at TIFF this year.

Malaika Hennie-Hamadi

The actor starred in TIFF favourite Bria Mack Gets a Life this year, a laugh-out-loud series following a recently graduated young Black woman navigating adulthood with an imaginary hype-girl by her side. 

Emma Seligman

The director’s satirical movie about a queer high school fight club, Bottoms, rewrote the script for the teen sex comedy, and was so popular it expanded from its 10-theatre run to over 700.

Celine Song

The writer-director’s moving, semi-autobiographical debut feature, Past Lives, was stunning and earned her a whopping four Oscar nominations. 

Danis Goulet

The director and screenwriter has always been a champion of Indigenous voices, and in closing out the final season of Reservation Dogs this year, she’s put an Indigenous-led show on the list of some of the top TV shows of our time. 

Jennifer Podemski

In co-creating and showrunning the stunning and devastating Little Bird limited series this year, Jennifer Podemski brought to light a story that Canada has almost never seen shared on the big or small screen before — the Sixties Scoop.

Deepa Mehta

The acclaimed director brought bold new documentary I Am Sirat to TIFF this year, following Indian trans government worker Sirat Taneja, and helped bring to life the joy and pain of trans existence in a time when anti-trans rhetoric and policies are growing in Canada and beyond.  

Madison Tevlin

The YouTube star has gone from hosting her own CBC talk show to starring with Woody Harrelson in feature film Champions and representing people with Down syndrome along the way.