Gabriel Dharmoo’s (he/him) multidirectional artistic practice encompasses musical composition, vocal performance, drag artistry, interdisciplinary arts and research.

As a composer, he has been awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Jules Léger Prize for his chamber work Wanmansho (2017) and the Conseil Québécois de la Musique Opus Award for his opera À chaque ventre son monstre (2018). He is currently collaborating with the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada) for an album of his chamber music.

His solo show Anthropologies imaginaires was awarded at the Amsterdam Fringe Festival (2015) and the SummerWorks Performance Festival (2016). He holds a PhD degree in research-creation from the Individualized Program of Concordia University.

Gabriel’s drag persona Bijuriya came to life in 2018. Half-Indian and half-Québécoise, Bijuriya explores her cultural roots by oscillating between homage, parody and critical thinking. Based on the exploration of this drag persona, the 2022 solo production Bijuriya has been presented at Montréal Arts Interculturels, the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival, the Music Gallery in Toronto and Springboard Performance’s Fluid Fest in Calgary. The show was presented 5 times in the Montreal Maisons de la culture de Montréal, via the CAM en Tournée program.

Hyunji-A, or Hyunji Lee (she/her) is a Korean-Canadian music producer, DJ, and actress based in Montréal. Having been classically trained on the piano since the age of 4, she has developed an innate desire and passion for creating and appreciating music. She gravitates towards crafting an emotionally moving sound.

Since her first release in 2020, she’s been featured on labels such as Onedotsixtwo, When We Dip’s Tales of Romance imprint and upcoming tracks confirmed on Sounds of Khemit (July 2023) and Mango Alley (October 2023). With DJs such as Hernan Cattaneo and Eelke Kleijn playing her tracks and frequent performances at esteemed Montréal clubs, such as Stereo and Le Salon Daomé, and repeated performances at Piknic Électronik, she’s established herself as one of the most promising electronic act out of Montréal.

“The Exotic Commodity of Burlesque”, Imogen Quest (they/them) is a genderqueer, mixed-race, Indo-Guyanese activist and artist of many disciplines. They are the driving force behind queer clown collective #ClownsKillEmpires, as well as a member of Les Femmes Fatales Women of Colour Burlesque. A darling of theatre and burlesque festivals worldwide, they’ve been teasing, pleasing, and confusing cabaret audiences for over ten years to great acclaim. They are the CURRENT REIGNING Mx. Gorgeous McSilly Pants.

Joy Rider (she/her) is a multi-award winning international burlesque artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. She is a 3-time winner (Most Innovative, and Best Small Group 2023, Best Debut 2022) at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, burlesque’s most renowned international competition and showcase. She uses her signature blend of glamour, power, storytelling, and sensuality to create acts about identity, queerness, struggle and joy. 

Born in Manila, Philippines and raised in the Canadian Prairies, Joy began dance and musical theatre at the age of 6 years old. She even performed for the Queen of England wearing a sequin cowgirl costume during her time with the Young Canadians of the Calgary Stampede.

Since starting burlesque in 2018 she has made waves including winning the 2019 Edmonton Burlesque Festival Bunny Competition, competing as a finalist at the 2022 Miss Viva Las Vegas Burlesque Competition, being voted into CultMTL’s Top 5 Burlesque Performers in Montreal in 2022 and 2023, and performing in Las Vegas, New Orleans, Toronto, Vancouver, and beyond! Her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, MAI-Montréal, arts interculturels, CanAsian Dance, Tangente Danse, and Festival Accès Asie. In her time offstage she is an art therapist/mental health counsellor in private practice and is either roller dancing or cuddling her cat Pony.

Keith (he/him) is a multifaceted artist having worked primarily in the realm of theater creation and performance following his graduation from the The Grant MacEwan Theatre Arts Program in 2007. In 2018 he founded Berlin Musicals, a professional musical theatre company providing performance opportunities to young and up-and-coming performers, based in Germany.

Keith returned to education to explore dramaturgy, directing and interdisciplinary performance practices in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Performance Creation program at Concordia University. Channeling his drag persona KAJOL (she/her), Keith is developing a new piece of interdisciplinary theatre shaped around his nomadic lifestyle and the understanding of his hybrid identity. In his short time in Montreal, Keith has worked as a performer, director, dramaturg, EDI & artistic associate and stage manager at The Segal Centre for the Performing Arts, Imago Theatre, Infinitheatre and MAI (Montreal Arts Interculturels). In 2024, KAJOL brings her sustainable drag practice to the general public with a series of workshops in partnership with the Centre for Creative Reuse.

Kě (they/them) is one of Montreal’s simplest, silliest guys. You may have seen them at various gay shows across Montréal as well as Gigglefest, Fierté Montréal and is now JFL Originals recording artist. They love weaving together words, stories, and commentary, in hopes of bringing you all some joy.

Their comedy finds the humor in their crazy life, makes jokes from their weird thoughts and is unapologetically true to themselves. Their energy is contagious and they will work their darn hardest to make you laugh. They hope their comedy can fill your cup just a little bit, because performing sure fills theirs.

Komodo (they/he) is an artist and community organizer of Chinese-Bruneian descent based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. Their mission is to contribute to the global renaissance of queer asian culture through erotic expression and inter-generational drag. Through their art, they hope to allow future queer asian generations to heal through sexual liberation and having healthier connections with their cultural roots.  He has performed with Sticky Rice Magazine, Festival Accès Asie, Tangente Danse, CanAsian Dance and Montreal Chinatown’s Night Market. 

Komodo is also the founder of OSLA, short for “Où Sont Les Asiatiques”, a community potluck for queer asians in Montreal to find each other and connect over sharing food.

Kuya Atay (he/they) is Toronto’s Queer FilipinX Ubae Babe, the Ma’amSir of burlesque. Pulling faces in Nerdlesque, unzipping in Queerlesque, and dripping in Boylesque. They explore themes of gender, identity, nostalgia, and living in the diaspora. As a Sculptural visual artist, they are multidisciplinary in prop making and stage masks that lend to their performance magic of Kuya. Competed at this year’s Burlesque Hall Of Fame festival in Las Vegas as a member of Canada’s premier Boylesque troupe BoylesqueTO. As well as the current crown holder of Drop Deadly Gorgeous Pageant presented by Weird Alice and Tygr Willy. Now, Come and Bless your Kuya!

Of Cambodian and Vietnamese origin, born in a refugee camp in Thailand and a Canadian citizen, Laurence Ly (he/him) directed his first self-financed feature film Marche avec moi in 2014 with his friends during the course of summer. He returned to school to earn a master’s degree in 2017 in communication, cinema and moving images. In 2022, he graduated from Inis in directing and directed Les Lauriers (web series) and Correspondance (short documentary), both of which have been shown in local and international festivals. He is currently finishing the direction of the short film Le petit panier à roulettes which received a grant from the CAC and the CALQ and is also co-producing a short film, La plantation, which will be shot in the Dominican Republic with the support of the CALQ. Director, producer, screenwriter and videographer, Laurence is also a commissioner and film programmer for Festival Accès Asie.

Lia Jasmine (she/her) is an emerging burlesque artist who views sensual performance as a means to connect with her body and reach the erotic within. She takes the road of experimentation and play towards self-discovery and leaves an intoxicating blend of hypnotic fluidity and fiery charisma in her tracks. Allow her alluring presence to envelop you once and see how long you can resist returning for more.

Filipino-Canadian drag icon Manny (she/her), aka Manny Cortez Tuazon, has worked in films, television, magazines,and modelling with the biggest names in the business. The Mother of the legendary House of Many continues to bring down the house co-headlining such as Fierte Montreal events as Drag Superstars and MajestiX.

Mina Minou (she/her) is an Iranian-American powerhouse in the fields of visual art, storytelling, burlesque, and the spaces between. Mina’s been using her background as a mutidisciplinary artist to delight audiences across North America for the past 10 years, pulling from her dizzyingly diverse range of original characters. This kitten delights as a slime-oozing flower or a sentient volcano diorama, a clown with clinical depression or a flirtatious ice cream man. Mina casts spells with her movements that leave her audience enchanted: witness the surreal fairytale, come to life!

Born in Beirut, Nayla Naoufal (she/her) lives in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyaang/Montreal, where she is the artistic director of Festival Accès Asie, an interdisciplinary festival that amplifies the voices of artists from the Asian diaspora across a diversity of fields of practice. Nayla is interested in issues of social and environmental justice, anti-racism, decolonization, and degrowth, particularly in and through the arts. Formerly a cultural journalist, she also works as an author, dramaturg, curator, cultural mediator, and workshop facilitator. Holding a PhD in environmental science (UQAM, 2012), she has been exploring the interconnections between artistic creation, place, and the living world for the past fifteen years. As a guest lecturer, she occasionally teaches at UQAM and the Université de Montreal. She is a member of the Decolonial Love Circle, a space for reflection and decolonial practices founded by Amel Zaazaa for the descendants of colonized peoples and activists from different backgrounds on contemporary political issues. Close to artistic communities, she has collaborated with artists such as Émilie Monnet, Daina Ashbee, Hanna Sybille Müller, k.g Guttman, Camille Renarhd, Tanha Gomes in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyaang/Montréal; Katarina Skår Lisa, Ramona Salo and Roza Moshtaghi in Oslo; Alexandre Paulikevitch in Beirut…Her texts have been published in publications such as Esse Contemporary Art Magazine, Mouvement Magazine (in France), Le Devoir, Jeu Theater Review, Zone Occupée, Black Box Teater Publication (in Norway), Theater der Zeit (in Germany), etc. She has worked, among others, at the MAI (Montreal, Intercultural Arts) and at the Canada Council for the Arts, and has collaborated with Les Productions Onishka, the International Theatre Festival in Oslo (OITF), RQD, Galerie Leonard Bina Ellen, Espace Go, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, etc. She occasionally collaborates as a writer or mediator with other Montreal festivals, such as the FTA and the Festival Filministes. She is fluent in French, Arabic, English, and Norwegian.

Pallina Michelot (she/her), general manager, is a young Afro-Québécoise artist of Haitian descent, trained actress (Theatre and Media DEC, Cégep de Trois-Rivières, graduated in 2014; Masterclass at the Russian Theatre School Demain le printemps, Belarus, graduated in 2015).

As a freelancer in the performing arts field for several years, Pallina has worked with several renowned companies and organizations in Canada. She has been involved in various stage arts: acting, directing, performance art, facilitation of theater workshops, artistic direction, and cultural mediation. The artist has also specialized in project management, directing, and artistic direction in the field of creative events. As a thoughtful project director, Pallina collaborates with various partners to implement projects from the ideation phase to production.

Over the years, Pallina Michelot has developed a keen interest in serving marginalized communities—women, BIPOC, immigrants or newcomers, indigenous peoples, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, gender minorities, and neurodivergent individuals. Her meticulous and creative approach to art is based on a principle of inclusive and intersectional democratization, making art accessible to everyone.

Positive and ambitious, yet grounded and humane, Pallina Michelot is a source of energy and spares no effort in successfully completing the tasks entrusted to her.