Montreal, February 4, 2025 – The Youth Media Alliance (YMA) and Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI) are delighted to announce the recipients of the John Rooney Creator Scholarships! The fund was established to honor the late John Rooney’s ardent support of LGBTQ2S+ talent in children, youth, and family animation, and has 2 streams of professional development: Content Development and Scriptwriting.

Content Development Stream

Awarded to an outstanding candidate to expedite their journey to becoming an established content creator, the winner of the Content Development Stream is Alex Pires.

Alex Pires is a creator and screenwriter with a passion for educational and entertaining storytelling for young audiences. With a varied background in television writing, he worked on the How to Survive and What If? series for Underknown Inc. where he conceived over 30 episodes combining humor, punchy dialogue and factual content in science and history. His talent for developing original projects has also led him to create a preschool series for Muslim Kids TV, Discoveries with Math! Alex wants to turn his Felix's Feelings Safari illustrated book into an animated series for young children. Through this project, he aims to offer concrete tools to help children better understand and manage their emotions, combining immersive storytelling, humor and teachings on emotional intelligence. With the support of the program, he hopes to refine his concept, develop it into a solid pitch and present it at various festivals and markets to reach a wide audience.

Alex will receive $5,000 (CAD) for mentorship from industry professionals for creative development, which can be spent on contracting professional resources for the creation of their concept and for travel and registration costs which will allow him to network at conferences that align with his career goals.

Scriptwriting Stream

Awarded to two emerging writers to attend a writing room for a show in production, the winners of the Scriptwriting Stream are Olivia Camerson and Nattasha Shrestha.

Olivia is an emerging screenwriter with a passion for creating inspiring content for young audiences. With a degree in television writing and production, she gained valuable experience as a writer for the preschool series Tiny & Tall, where she integrated educational elements into her scripts while ensuring that young viewers' attention was captivated. Her career has also taken her to work in production and marketing for theatrical institutions such as Theatre Gargantua and Theatre by the Bay, and in communications and social media management for George Brown Theatre School, where she devised promotional strategies for student productions. As director and producer, she staged Another Word for Pomegranate at the P.E.I. Fringe Festival, managing staging, production and logistics. She hopes to enrich her skills by joining a professional writing room, an essential opportunity to deepen her mastery of storytelling, collaborate with other creators and hone her ability to construct engaging narratives for young audiences..  

Nattasha is an emerging screenwriter from Southeast Asia, whose stories deftly blend drama and comedy to explore profound and universal themes. With an international background that has taken her to five continents, she brings a unique and honed perspective to television writing. After studying at UBC and the Vancouver Film School, she worked as a story editor for several festivals and productions, before collaborating with Netflix as part of the Women in Animation program. She will take advantage of our grant to enrich her experience in children's animation, a field she has always been passionate about. Currently in development on several original projects, including a preschool series with Kickstart Entertainment and an animated short with Netflix, she aims to create inclusive and impactful stories for young audiences. Through her work, she seeks to infuse stories with values of authenticity and representation, and voices under-represented on screen.

The laureates will be placed in a writing room for a show currently in production to gain an understanding of the script writing process, how stories are developed for series, and if possible, contribute to the room creatively. The Fund will cover a maximum of 10 working days, at $250 per day, for a total allocation of $2,500 per writer.