Meet the Paprika2025 Cohort

Jane-Leigh Jamieson (She/Her) is a dancer and choreographer from the Six Nations Reserve. Jane-Leigh has always been passionate about the arts, specifically dance. She enrolled in various dance classes at different studios in her area growing up. She took many classes related to her field of interest in high school while obtaining her stage and screen SHSM. During her time in high school she performed in musicals, The Wedding Singer, Aladdin Jr., and a special performance of One Night Only where she choreographed a number. She also performed in a student written play titled Saving Copetown which competed in the NTS dramafest. She moved on to graduate from the George Brown College Dance Performance Preparation Program, where she took classes in ballet, pointe, jazz, modern dance, contact improve, and other related classes which made her a well rounded performer. Now Jane-Leigh is working on further developing her skills as a choreographer.

aleria mckay (She/Her) comes from an onondaga & teme augama anishnabai mother and red river métis & dene tha’ father. she was raised on six nations of the grand river and is proud to call her community home. aleria holds a bachelor of arts in theatre and indigenous studies and bachelor of education. she is currently working towards a master of arts in creative writing at the university of british columbia. a poet and playwright, her past works include and she split the sky in two and thunderstorms. her most recent poetry collection, sweetgrass & cigarettes, was released in early 2023. in her free time, aleria enjoys reading, gardening, sewing, escape rooms, bird-watching, playing the sims 4, being on the land, and poorly attempting to identify fungi.

Greg Carruthers (He/Him/She/Her) is an award winning content producer, choreographer and intimacy director based in Toronto, Canada. Greg has choreographed for The Second City, PepsiCo, Canada’s Wonderland, The Grand Theatre (London) and the Madinat Theatre (Dubai). As an educator, Greg works with Sheridan College, St. Clair College, U of T, TMU, and York U. Greg has produced events through his company “EveryBODY on Stage” for Comedy Bar, Musical Stage Co and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre which has garnered him a Premier’s Award Nomination. In addition, Greg has amassed a following of 30k+ on social media and through their support received a people’s choice Webby award, presenting his speech on stage in NYC with Anderson Cooper, SZA and more. Greg is incredibly honoured to have this opportunity and would like to thank friends, family and community members who continue to support her work. @EveryBODYonStage | everybodyonstage.com

Srutika Sabu (she/they) is a doctor turned clown and multidisciplinary artist. A medical school existential crisis led her to Toronto, where she embraced her late-bloomer theatre kid era. Through clown training at Sweet Action Theatre, she discovered her drag king persona, Santosh Santosh (aka Tosh), who starred in the Toronto Fringe show 1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go, directed by Ken Hall.

She has since performed at Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, Montreal Sketchfest, and WTFestival, crafting work that blends absurdity, vulnerability, and joy. Srutika sees storytelling as a form of knowledge creation, using performance to challenge dominant narratives and explore identity, connection, and cultural memory.

This year, in addition to Paprika Festival’s Creative Producers Unit, she is part of Buddies in Bad Times' Emerging Creators Unit, Theatre Gargantua’s Artist Roundtable, and Nightwood Theatre’s Shadow Residency in Fundraising—expanding her practice across performance, production, and artistic development.

Chloe Cha 차승은 (she/her) is a performer and artist entrenched in vivid multidisciplinary embodiment and expression. Ephemeral feelings, moment to moment, and oversaturated meanings, their creative practice merges performance, sound, experimental filmmaking, graffiti, and poetry. Chloe is currently in their second year of Performance: Acting at TMU; recent credits include Hermes in Manic Theatre’s upcoming production of Fire and Frost: Prometheus, Pandora and the Birth of Humankind (2025), Sheep’s Clothing Theatre’s Bard Luck does Macbeth (2024), and co-creator/performer of There Is So Much More To Say (2024), a multigenerational gathering of sharing and weaving that has been performed through various iterations around the country.

Osvaldo Barreda Buschmann (Ova) (he/him) is a dancer and arts educator from Santiago, Chile, currently based in Toronto, Canada (since March 2023). A graduate of art school, he began his career as a high school art teacher while contributing to the Chilean art collective Plantar Memoria, with whom he participated in community arts projects, workshops and exhibitions, and won an art residency in Medellín, Colombia.
After moving to Canada, he participated in another international community arts residency in Ubuntu Learning Village (Gutu, Zimbabwe), led by Muse Arts (Toronto), which further broadened his artistic and social perspective. Back in Toronto, Osvaldo focused his creative interest on dance; his passion since the age of 12. Nowadays he is part of 2.0 Dance Company, Raíces de Chile Cultural Group and works as a community arts facilitator, creating dynamic and participatory experiences that foster cultural connection and expression.

Emma Cuzzocrea (she/they/he) is a performing artist currently pursuing a BFA in Acting from TMU. Most recently, Emma was a contributor and performer with Guilty By Association’s production of 2021: Mechanisms to Hold in 2024. Emma thanks Mum, Pop, Sarah, Kathleen, Ruth, Gilly, and all of the POPs (People of Paprika).

Macarena Coronado Harman (She/Her) is a multidisciplinary artist from Lima, Peru who utilizes and combines multiple mediums and art forms to tell stories. As a neurodivergent artist Macarena is dominantly guided by her emotion and senses in her creative process, and aims to recreate the intensity of emotion that she experiences through her art on the stage. Additionally through a deep passion for social justice, accessibility, and equity, Macarena is adamant in including her political, cultural, and social awareness in her work, aspiring to make art and performance that are expressive and revealing in all senses, while being accessible and inviting to all.