Raj Panikkar

Raj is an award-winning Toronto based producer. With Fifth Ground Entertainment (formerly Georgian Entertainment), he associate produced the half-hour comedy series "Rent-A-Goalie" for Showcase (three multiple Gemini nominated seasons), and co-produced "The Rawside Of..." (nominated for two Gemini Awards in 2009), a music documentary series for IFC for which he oversaw development, production, post and distribution. Among many new projects he is developing at Fifth Ground are the half-hour comedy "Slacker Moms" in development with CBC, the half hour comedy "Standby", and the one hour drama "Saint Bats" in development with Showcase. With his company Shoes Full of Feet he has produced seven short films with a slew of awards, the most recent of which is the kids adventure romp "For All The Marbles", a film which continues to play dozens of festivals and win awards. Raj also executive produced the feature film "At Home By Myself With You", distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media. It was a Top Ten List finalist for most popular Canadian film at the Vancouver Film Festival in October 2009, and played as part of the Perspective Canada section in the Marche du Film at the Cannes Film Festival. The film also just won a Canadian Comedy Award for lead actor Kristin Booth. As well, Shoes has several features in development. These include "Schooled" and "The Leftover Bandit", both of which have received development financing from Telefilm Canada and The Harold Greenberg Fund Raj has written several films, including the OMDC Calling Card project "Safe". He also wrote and directed "Day of the Carp" which won the Best Screenplay award at the New York I.I.F.V Festival in 2000. Raj has won several other awards such as the Nick Holeris Memorial Scholarship Award for excellence in screenwriting. With a BSc. in Psychology from McMaster University and a BFA in Film from Ryerson University, Raj also operates and functions as an independent writer, filmmaker and creative consultant.