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Russell Dominic Peters, comedian, actor (born September 29, 1970 in Toronto, ON). Russell Peters is one of the most successful comedians in the world. His trademark politically incorrect humour confronts racial stereotypes and draws upon his experience as an Indo-Canadian. His struggles to break through in the United States, combined with his record-breaking success virtually everywhere else, led Chris Rock to call him the “most famous person nobody’s ever heard of.” Peters was named Toronto’s first Global Ambassador in 2008 and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2011. Forbes magazine has listed him among the world’s highest-earning comedians numerous times since 2009.

Bharati Mukherjee, novelist, short-story writer (born 27 July 1940 in Calcutta, India; died 28 January 2017 in New York, NY).

Edith Maude Eaton (Sui Sin Far), journalist, author (b at Macclesfield, Eng, 15 Mar 1865; d at Montréal, 7 Apr 1914).

Menaka Thakkar, dancer, choreographer, director and teacher (born 3 March 1942 in Bombay, India).

Deepa Mehta, OC, OOnt, director, producer, screenwriter (born 1 January 1950 in Amritsar, India). Deepa Mehta has received international acclaim for her moving and provocative films, which often explore issues of human rights and social injustice. She is perhaps best known for her epic “Elements trilogy” — Fire (1996), Earth (1998) and Water (2005). The latter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Mehta has received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Order of Ontario and Queen’s Jubilee Medal. She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for “challenging cultural traditions and bringing stories of oppression, injustice and violence to the fore.”

Several common traits - particularly the wish to preserve the culture and language of the country of origin and to instil a sense of community ties - can be found as the driving motivation behind any theatre group formed within a recent immigrant community.

Tsukiye Muriel Kitagawa (née Fujiwara), writer, political activist, (born 3 April 1912 in Vancouver, BC; died 27 March 1974 in Toronto, ON). In the 1930s and 1940s, Kitagawa was variously an editor or regular contributor to The New Age, The New Canadian, and Nisei Affairs, publications founded with her fellow second-generation Japanese Canadians to advocate for the political rights of Canadians of Japanese ancestry. She is most well known for her 1941-42 letters to her brother, Mitsumori Wesley “Wes” Fujiwara, which contained her firsthand accounts of the Japanese Canadian community in Vancouver in the months following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor (December 1941) and as the Canadian government gradually implemented orders for the community’s forced removal from the coast (see War Measures Act; Internment of Japanese Canadians). Her letters were published posthumously in 1985 as This is My Own: Letters to Wes & Other Writings on Japanese Canadians, 1941-1948. Kitagawa’s writings were an important source for the Japanese Canadian Redress movement.

Shyam Selvadurai's first novel, Funny Boy won the SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award and The Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's Fiction. The novel is at once innocent and wise, fanciful and uncompromisingly frank in its depiction of Arjie Chelvaratnam's happy and harrowing childhood.

THE BOOK OF SECRETS (1993) established Vassanji as an important voice in Canadian literature. Awarded the inaugural SCOTIABANK GILLER prize for fiction, it won both critical and popular acclaim. The Book of Secrets is representative of Vassanji's gift for storytelling.

Wonny Song, pianist and artistic and executive director (born 6 April 1978 in Seoul, South Korea). Originally from South Korea, this Canadian pianist has received several prestigious awards and has played with many symphony orchestras around the world. Thanks to his many recordings and media presence, particularly on the radio, classical music has become accessible to and appreciated by the general public.

Simu Liu, actor, writer, director, producer, stuntman, model (born 19 April 1989 in Harbin, China). Simu Liu is best known for his role as Shang-Chi, Marvel’s first Asian superhero, and for his role as Jung Kim on the hit CBC sitcom Kim’s Convenience. A former stuntman and model who also produces his own projects, the Chinese Canadian Liu has also become an advocate for equal race representation in the entertainment industry. He was named one of the top 500 entertainment business leaders of 2021 by Variety and one of the 100 most influential people of 2022 by Time magazine.

Weisgarber, Elliot. Composer, clarinetist, ethnomusicologist, b Pittsfield, Mass, 5 Dec 1919, naturalized Canadian 1973, d Vancouver 31 Dec 2001; B MUS (ESM, Rochester) 1942, M MUS (ESM, Rochester) 1943.

Roy Akira Miki, academic, poet, critic, editor, activist (born 10 October 1942 in Winnipeg, MB).

(Douglas) Jay (Philip) Rahn. Ethnomusicologist, musicologist, music theorist, b St Catharines Ont 28 Dec 1947; B MUS (Toronto) 1969; MA, M PHIL (Columbia) 1972, PH D (Columbia) 1978.

(Anna) Regula Qureshi (b Burckhardt). Ethnomusicologist, teacher, cellist, b Basel 13 Jul 1939, naturalized Canadian 1968; MA German literature and linguistics (Pennsylvania) 1962, M MUS musicology (Alberta) 1973, PH D anthropology (Alberta) 1981.

Thomas Watson Kirkconnell, university professor and administrator (born 16 May 1895 in Port Hope, ON; died 26 February 1977 in Wolfville, NS). A professor of English and Classics, Kirkconnell became one of Canada’s most prolific translators and the recipient of honours both at home and abroad. He was a founding member of the Humanities Research Council of Canada (now the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada). An early cultural pluralist, Kirkconnell promoted the tolerance and celebration of European cultures in Canada, a diversity he described using the tapestry metaphor.

Rita Wong, poet, educator (born at Calgary, Alta 1968). Rita Wong grew up in Calgary. In 1990 she graduated from the UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY with a BA.

​David John Chariandy, writer, professor of English literature (born in 1969 in Scarborough, ON).

José Evangelista, composer, teacher (b at Valencia, Spain 5 August 1943).

Winnifred Eaton Babcock Reeve (a.k.a. Onoto Watanna), author, screenwriter (born 21 August 1875 in Montreal, QC; died 8 April 1954 in Butte, Montana). Winnifred Eaton achieved literary fame under the pseudonym Onoto Watanna. She was the first person of Asian descent to publish a novel in the United States — Miss Numè of Japan (1899) — and to reach a mainstream audience. Her novel A Japanese Nightingale (1901) was adapted into a Broadway play and a motion picture. She also wrote screenplays for Hollywood and two novels, Cattle (1924) and His Royal Nibs (1925), about ranching life in Alberta.