Rising Stars 2024

As a kid growing up in Querétaro, Mexico, Covarrubias always wanted to be in the kitchen—it’s where he says all the “cool kids” in his family were. At 14, he took that ambition and began cooking professionally. Then, at 17, he moved to Canada to pursue a career as a chef. He graduated with honours from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in 2015 and started at Hexagon in downtown Oakville in 2017. Covarrubias won the 2019 North American San Pellegrino Young Chef Competition in New York and went on to place fifth in the world. This year, he received Michelin’s Young Chef Award and earned Hexagon its first Michelin star.

For years, Slowikowska was a struggling artist, landing the occasional minor role one day (such as an amateur vampire hunter on the culty Toronto-shot comedy What We Do in the Shadows) and working retail the next. Then she started posting comedy bits on TikTok during the pandemic, building a digital portfolio that would hopefully lead to other acting work—a side hustle that became the main event after she went viral. Typifying the punchline-free, semi-surrealist humour of her generation, the Second City–trained comic is never afraid to crank up the cringe. Her gloriously unhinged skit about a woman who doesn’t (but totally does) want to have her face shoved into a birthday cake has been viewed more than four million times, including by Justin Bieber and Slowikowska’s comedy idol Jack Black. Since achieving internet-icon status, she has launched a podcast, toured her comedy act across North America and performed as part of the Netflix Is a Joke 2024 festival.

At seven foot four, Leaside’s Zach Edey holds the distinction of being the one of the tallest athletes currently playing in the NBA—and that’s just one reason you’re unlikely to miss him. In February, Edey declared for the 2024 draft, and in June he was selected ninth overall by the Memphis Grizzlies. Just a few weeks into his first season, he’s already the front runner for Rookie of the Year. Even better, he’s earned a nickname from Shaq, who dubbed him Zachille O’Neal based on his WTF wingspan and impressive March Madness stats.

In July, Woon-A-Tai earned a historic Emmy nomination for his work on the final season of Reservation Dogs, becoming the first Indigenous person to get the nom for outstanding actor in a comedy series. The trophy went to The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, but Woon-A-Tai, whose paternal family is Oji-Cree, didn’t miss the chance to make an impression, walking the red carpet with a red handprint painted across his face—a show of solidarity with missing and murdered Indigenous women. That face will be seen in the upcoming Warfare, a super buzzy war drama about a Navy SEAL team in Iraq, from Civil War director Alex Garland.

In 2020, Vincent made Olympic history when she medalled in the first-ever Games to include women’s canoe events. A month after returning home with her bronze in the paired 500-metre race, she became a world champion in the individual 200-metre event, winning her first individual world title. From there, she kept on racking up medals: at the 2023 World Championships, Vincent won an astonishing three medals in just four hours—a feat made only more badass by the fact that it came a mere three months after she broke two bones in her arm in a bike accident. At this year’s Olympics in Paris, she won another bronze in a paired event and, in a nail-biting race, her first Olympic gold, beating her nearest competitor by an astounding one-hundredth of a second. The win also tipped Team Canada into record-breaking territory for earning the most medals during a non-boycotted year.

Chin got her culinary start as a kid cracking eggs in the kitchen of her grandparents’ farm. Pretty soon, she was helping out with every meal. Now, having worked in renowned kitchens around the world, she’s returned to her roots with a focus on farm-fresh food and Chinese cooking. Her first big break was as head chef of Vancouver’s since-closed but much-celebrated farm-to-table restaurant Royal Dinette. From there, she went to Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar, working her way up to chef de cuisine before relocating to Toronto in 2020 to head up Kojin by Momofuku—her first significant departure from European fare. More recently, Chin headed up the kitchen at east-end darling Avling and is now the culinary director at Hong Shing Restaurant and the executive chef of YAN Dining Room. Throughout it all, she’s kept up her pop-up series, the Soy Luck club, which she’s described as her love letter to Chinese food—and potentially the seed for her own future restaurant.

Sisters Omega and Haviah Mighty were blessed with a surname that feels like a prophecy. The two artists, who create separately but also sometimes release songs together, are undeniable forces in the Canadian music scene. In 2019, Haviah became the first Black woman and hip-hop artist to win the Polaris, for her debut album, 13th Floor. Three years later, she went on to win a Juno for her mixtape, Stock Exchange. And this year, she embarked on a much-hyped European tour, returning home in September to host and perform at the first-ever Billboard Canada Women in Music event. Omega, who started training in classical piano at age four and dance at age nine, is making a name as both a performer and a choreographer. She earned a Juno nod this year for the lead single “Rush Dem” off her hit sophomore EP, Notorious & Noble. And not long afterward, CBC Music named her a top 10 finalist in its 2024 Searchlight contest, praising her vibrant single “Badgirl Workout.” Both sisters have highlighted their formative years in Brampton, where they moved from Toronto, and this year Omega penned an anthem for the suburb’s 50th anniversary, performing “Celebrate You” during the birthday bash in June.

Baddeley worked his way to the top at two of the city’s hottest restaurants, Bar Raval and Osteria Rialto. Now, the fine-dining chef is responsible for what is perhaps the city’s best slice—and definitely the most in-demand, judging from the lineups reliably snaking down Dovercourt. He opened Pizzeria Badiali in 2021 with Naples-meets-New-York technique and signature slices like the vodka pie (a rosé sauce inspired by the classic pasta dish) and the burrata marinara. If a devout local following isn’t enough, this fall he was the only dough-slinger in Canada to make it onto the world’s best pizza chefs list. Up next, a second location in Mirvish Village.

The co-founders of Erthos could tell you about how their plastic alternative made from agricultural waste is 100 per cent natural and non-toxic. Or they could just eat it in front of you. They did the latter before a panel of potential investors, and the strategy clearly worked. In 2022, they landed on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list. Last year, the start-up raised $6.5 million in an oversubscribed round of Series A funding. And this year they launched Erthos Studios, an offshoot that moves away from manufacturing and into the AI-powered development of biomaterials for the world’s largest consumer packaged goods companies.

Tolev is laughing her way to stratospheric success. The Toronto-born comedian and actor graduated from Humber’s comedy writing and performance program in 2005. She then went on to slay audiences as part of the comedy sketch duo Ladystache, which she founded with her friend and fellow Humber grad Allison Hogg. In 2014, she made the leap to LA, where she’s become buds with comedic legend Bill Burr, appearing in both his Netflix special Friends Who Kill and his recent directorial debut, Old Dads. After a fruitful career as a supporting funny woman, Tolev is now poised to become the headliner, having just finished filming her first hour-long stand-up special.

SpacesShared is a matching platform that plays platonic cupid between housing-strapped students and seniors with extra space. Kinnon cribbed the idea from similar home-share platforms in Scandinavia and has partnered with colleges and universities across the country, including the University of Toronto and Lakehead University. The app assists at every stage of the home-sharing process (matching students and hosts, managing background checks and processing payments), helping to combat a laundry list of socioeconomic woes from the exorbitant cost of housing to the loneliness epidemic to the difficulties of seniors aging in place.

Wilson got her start working the front desk at Toronto indie label Arts and Crafts. Her time there taught her a lot, especially about the power of a small team: after gaining critical acclaim with her 2016 EP, CWD, in 2021, she self-released her debut studio album, Alpha. Going her own way has allowed the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist to capitalize on her remarkably unique R&B sound. In recent years, she’s collaborated with artists such as BadBadNotGood and SG Lewis, and Drake, John Mayer and James Blake have all sampled her tunes. This past May, critics and fans gushed over the release of her sophomore album, Cyan Blue. It was her first with what she calls her “dream label,” XL Recordings, and included musical partnerships with star producers Leon Thomas (who’s worked with Ariana Grande and Post Malone) and Jack Rochon (Beyoncé, Daniel Caesar). Wilson followed that career high with the release of an EP in September, recorded live at the BBC’s iconic Maida Vale Studios in London.

This past June, the National Ballet promoted Law to principal dancer from her position as second soloist, by-passing the rank of first soloist. Per tradition, the announcement happened live on stage. Law had just finished her debut as Kitri in Don Quixote and had no idea it was coming: “My brain was empty,” she says, “and I didn’t really know what to do.” But, for fans and critics, the move made perfect sense. While leapfrogging a full rank is rare, so is Law’s exceptional talent. The Hong Kong–born dancer trained at the New Zealand School of Dance, moving to Toronto and joining the company’s corps de ballet in 2018. Since then, she’s wowed audiences as Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. In November, she assumed the title role of Giselle, her first as principal dancer and her dream role since she was a girl.

Mustafa first started attracting attention at age 12 as a performance poet before going on to become a founding member of the hip-hop collective Halal Gang, then directing a moving short film about gun violence called Remember Me, Toronto. He worked behind the scenes, penning hits for Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber, the Weeknd and others, before releasing his own album, When Smoke Rises, in 2021. He dedicated his debut to his friend and fellow Halal Gang member Smoke Dawg, who was killed in 2018. The New York Times and Rolling Stone both praised Mustafa’s sound, which he calls “inner-city folk music,” and the album was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize and won a Juno. This September, he released Dunya, which critics have called a “gorgeous treatise on rage and faith.” The music video from the album’s lead single, “Name of God,” about Mustafa’s relationship with Islam, won him his second Prism prize—making him the only person to win twice. The Sudanese-Canadian artist also put a heavy focus on giving back this year, organizing two charity concerts called Artist for Aid, which raised funds for Gaza and Sudan.

The associate litigator at McCarthy Tétrault secured her place in a potential future Heritage Moment by representing First Nations communities in a landmark class action against the federal government regarding clean drinking water on reserves—the $8-billion settlement is among the largest ever in Canada. Willsey is an active member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, and advocating for Indigenous communities is her professional specialty and her passion, as seen her in her current caseload: a suit against the attorney general of Canada for failing to address the housing crisis on reserves in Manitoba and another against the Toronto Police Service for racist carding practices, which names current and former police chiefs Bill Blair, Mark Saunders, James Ramer and Myron Demkiw. This past February, she was also named to the board of directors for the APTN.

Poon’s Chinatown gallery, Conditions, is one of the city’s most inventive new art spaces—in large part because it’s so much more. Poon lives in the same ground-floor apartment that she uses to exhibit art, allowing for a surprising interplay between personal and commercial space. It feels like nothing is off-limits: Toronto artist Craig Spence’s piece “Wet Dog” was displayed in her bathtub. Meanwhile, the former bedroom is home to The Flow, a training studio focused on strength, flexibility, and healing, where some of the art is also on display. Poon originally founded the gallery in Paris, also inside an apartment, where it became a similarly boundary-pushing hit before she relocated and rebranded it in Toronto. Here, she’ll continue to showcase international artists and prompt visitors to ask whether art and life can ever truly be separated.

After gaining attention for a 2020 collab with Lesley Hampton in 2021, Wabano became the first two-spirit person ever to be featured in an IKEA ad. Last year, they earned a shoutout on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list on the heels of their New York Fashion Week debut. This year, they gave the keynote at the Indigenous Fashion History and Teachings Show near Calgary, speaking on the value of sustainable, genderless fashion as a way to educate people about the harms of colonization on Indigenous communities. Representation has always been an essential part of the look for Wabano, whose namesake streetwear line celebrates Indigenous iconography, including the stylized teepee logo that adorned their NYFW collection.

Under the stage name Bambii, Kirsten Azan spent the 2010s as a club DJ before transitioning into music production, developing a now signature sonic stew of electro beats, jungle and the dancehall sounds of her native Jamaica. Her debut EP, Infinity Club, was released to wide acclaim in 2023—both on the critical circuit (she won a Juno this year for best electronic album and landed on the Polaris Prize shortlist) and on dance floors around the world. She has frequently used her platform to advocate for queer women of colour in the male-dominated MC space and may be the biggest Toronto booster since Drake. Over the summer, she signed with the influential indie label Because Music and landed on the cover of DJ Mag.

Pankiw’s breakout film, I Used To Be Funny, which received wide release in 2024, is a comedy about trauma and violence against women—a tonal tightrope walk that highlights the Toronto writer/director’s unique sensibility and scored “Certified Fresh” honours on Rotten Tomatoes. Next up, she will direct a documentary about Lilith Fair (the femme fest’s creator, Sarah McLachlan, is on board, along with a who’s who of ’90s Women & Songs–era hitmakers).

Born and raised in Toronto, multi-disciplinary artist Briony Douglas was first recognized for her photography. A decade ago, she quit her day job in marketing to pursue that creative passion full time. By 2022, she’d landed a gig with Apple, shooting TIFF celebrity portraits (Oprah, LaKeith Stanfield, Zac Efron) on the then-unreleased iPhone14 Pro. Since then, Douglas’s creative ambitions have grown—literally. Her latest work is in large-scale art installations: an elephant made from 500 pounds of rope for Holt Renfrew’s Knot On My Planet charity, 10-foot pink cowboy boots for the Boots and Hearts Music Festival, a nearly seven-foot KFC bucket/flower planter to celebrate the fried chicken chain’s commitment to sustainable packaging by 2025. The work is hugely popular on social media—it makes for the perfect selfie backdrop—and brands can’t get enough. This past spring, Douglas created the Where’s Waldo? mural adorning Canada’s very first Shake Shack location as well as a full-scale Formula 1 car adorned with 48,960 nails, which was displayed at the 2024 Montreal Grand Prix for American Express.

Amit launched Hovr in Toronto this past May, going up against ride-sharing giants Uber and Lyft in order to build a more equitable system for drivers. Hovr functions almost exactly like its competitors except that drivers get paid the entirety of the rider fare. The promise of better, more consistent pay proved so alluring that 8,000 drivers signed up for Hovr within the first 48 hours. Today it has more than 46,000 drivers and 30,000 customers, and plans to grow it even more. His first round of fundraising, mostly from family and friends, brought in $385,000. He now hopes to crowdfund another $800,000 by the end of 2024 and intends to use the cash to increase brand awareness. “We’re a Canadian company and we care about Canadian workers,” he told the Globe and Mail in October. “I really do believe people who care about workers’ rights will come to us.”

Like so many with sweet tooths, Christensen started baking cookies during the pandemic, but what began as a tasty spin on self-care has evolved into a burgeoning biscuit empire. Andrea’s Cookies launched as a takeout window in High Park North two years ago, serving up a curated, ever-evolving mix of downright gorgeous confections. You might recognize the pink-flower-topped birthday cake flavour from Instagram, where Christensen’s cookies frequently go viral—due in part to her marketing background. Last month, she opened a second west-end location, on Ossington.

Lean earned not one but four 2024 Canadian Screen Award nominations for her latest documentary, The Climate Baby Dilemma, a moving portrait of the young people who are opting out of parenthood because of environmental anxiety. This came on the heels of last year’s big win for We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel), which has established Lean as an important voice in the climate-conscious filmmaker space and someone adept at approaching impending doom with humour and artistic flair. Next up, she’s working on BlackBerry director Matt Johnson’s next film and directing a rare good-news climate narrative—a doc on the successful campaign against acid rain—that earned a grant from Robert Redford’s foundation.

Waterson’s feature directorial debut, Backspot—about the high-stakes, high-drama world of competitive cheerleading—is frequently described as the gay Bring It On: a quirky comedy with quotable zingers and plenty of pom-pom porn. But it’s also a coming-of-age exploration of queer identity that doesn’t focus on a traumatic coming-out narrative, which was the whole point for Waterson. The first film produced by Elliot Page’s Pageboy Productions, Backspot earned raves at its TIFF 2023 premiere and at last spring’s SXSW festival, and the momentum carried on to its wide release this May.

The kid from Cinderella Man has been thriving as a TikTok content creator—an acting-to-hip-hop crossover success story not seen since a certain 6ix God. When Price first started posting his tracks back in 2018, he was getting about 7,000 streams on Spotify annually; by last year, he had amassed more than 600 million. Major career moments so far include a social media–born collaboration with Idris Elba that started when Elba posted a verse on his Instagram and invited fans to build on it. Price responded with a lyric that included a reference to Friends icon Courteney Cox, who eventually appeared in the music video. Price’s 2024 album, Spin the Globe 2, is the result of a viral series in which he spins an actual globe and collaborates with an artist from the country where his finger lands. The album netted him a Juno nomination for breakthrough star of the year.