Lunch was founded in 2009 by international award-winning Executive Producer Amy Miranda as a creative services company delivering advertising, marketing and content production. Lunch provides everything from strategy to execution across all mediums. After spending years in managerial positions working in broadcast, technology and advertising, Amy had the realization that there was another way to do things. Making things should be as easy as ordering lunch, whether it’s a full campaign or just lending an extra hand. Lunch has produced work for major brands including Red Bull, Clorox of Canada, Brita Canada, Paramount Pictures, Pee-wee Herman and Nickelodeon, as well as countless agencies.
After 8 years, Lunch is proud to announce an expansion to include the addition of incredible women to its leadership. Demonstrating their commitment to diversity and female representation in the creative business, Lunch’s new leadership includes expertise in film, TV, integrated, branded, strategic, and creative production. From narrative to factual, from traditional to non-traditional, the collective is being led by experts in all areas.
Lunch is 100% female owned and now also 100% female operated.
Amy Miranda, Founder & Executive Producer
Amy is an internationally awarded Executive Producer from Toronto. She attended Sheridan College for Film and began her career at CNN.com in Atlanta. She moved on to technology leadership positions with Activate and Alliance Atlantis/U8TV. She landed in advertising at digital agency HendersonBas where she worked on the Molson account, and eventually moved to become Director of Interactive Production at TAXI and Director of Integrated Production at Grip Ltd. In 2009 she founded Lunch Inc., where she has led hundreds of projects, from global campaigns to series development. Amy is an outspoken activist and advocate for women & children’s rights. She also sits on the board of non-profit ArtsCan Circle, a charitable organization with a mission to encourage the self-esteem of youth in northern Indigenous communities through a cooperative exploration of the arts. Amy is also a shamanic healing & reiki practitioner who specializes in working with survivors of sexual abuse.
Chanda Chevannes, Lead Factual Content
Chanda is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, and educator. She creates work that deals with complex social issues in an artistic way, while amplifying women’s voices. Chanda’s most recent film, UNFRACTURED had its World Premiere as the opening night film at the Planet in Focus Film Festival in Toronto, where it also took home the award for Best Canadian Feature. Before UNFRACTURED, Chanda directed four creative documentaries that have screened to audiences around the world and a broad range of short films for corporations and non-profit organizations, including a branded micro-doc series for Discovery’s Shark Week.
She is also the author of several educational resources and an instructor in the Business of Film and Television post-graduate program at Centennial College’s Story Arts Centre. Chanda has been honoured with a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media; was named a Woman to Watch by Sydney’s Buzz on Indie Wire; and was a recipient of the prestigious Chalmers Arts Fellowship. Chanda is raising her two children, Hannah and Henry, to be passionate members of their community of Toronto, Canada.
Natalie Urquhart, Lead Narrative Content
Natalie is a producer from Toronto. She has her BFA from the University of Southern California, and is a graduate of the Second City Conservatory. Natalie’s most recent work was on the television series, Suits, for NBCUniversal. She worked on the show for six seasons, and was an associate producer during her last season. She also has produced two short films, Throwing Cotton, funded by the NSI Drama Prize, and We Are Here, shot in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Both films were recipients of the BravoFACT! award. Natalie was a finalist with the Bell Media/National Screen Institute's Totally Television program with a half hour comedy, and is currently a resident at the CFC Cineplex Entertainment producer's lab, where she has both a feature film and a television series in development.
Jen Mete, Lead Integrated & Experiential
Jen is an Executive Producer with extensive experience in creating & producing content for marketing and advertising. Jen thrives on producing relevant and engaging experiences through intelligent leadership. Jen consistently undertakes challenging integrated projects requiring 360-degree leadership of multi-platform productions. Jen produced the launch of the award-winning Budweiser Red Light Integrated campaign. She has been ranked globally within the top 10 agency producers by Boards Magazine, and has produced work on 4 continents. Jen has held production management positions with TBWA, Leo Burnett, TAXI, Saatchi & Saatchi, NFB, Sid Lee/Jimmy Lee, Anomaly, Camp Jefferson and Current Studios.
Elaine Li, Lead Strategy & Media
Elaine is the founder and managing director of Stripe & Crane. Elaine specializes in helping brands overhaul their digital marketing practices. For two years, Elaine led digital marketing for all brands in the Clorox Canada portfolio. She was responsible for internalizing Clorox’s programmatic media buying and formed relationships with several different ad tech providers to improve the brand’s control over its media spend. She also initiated the company’s first RFP for a digital creative agency of record. Prior to heading up digital marketing, Elaine worked on Burt’s Bees and GUD. Elaine previously held brand marketing positions at Philips and Reebok. Stripe & Crane Consulting helps brands reformulate their owned, earned and paid digital strategy and reassess what they can do in-house. She reviews options in various digital channels like programmatic, search and social to see what makes the most sense for a brand to do internally or through partners. Elaine holds degrees in Economics and Marketing from York University.
Sasha Pierce, Lead Fine Art
Sasha’s paintings take advantage of the inherent physicality of oil paint – along with the seemingly infinite variety of colours it can afford – to experiment with the concepts of colour, composition, and texture; thus evoking the impression of textiles. Unlike the mass production of garment and textile factories, Sasha’s work emulates the loving toil and meticulous technique of a couturiére. She received an MFA from the University of Waterloo in 2004 and a BA from University of Guelph in 1997. Sasha was the recipient of the Ontario Arts Council’s Laura Ciruls Painting Award in 2015 and was awarded honourable mention in the Eleventh Annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition in 2009. Recent exhibitions include: Western Exhibitions, Chicago (2017); Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles (2016); Mixed Greens, New York (2015); Jessica Bradley, Toronto (2013); and Mercer Union, Toronto (2013). Recent residencies include: Vermont Studio Center/Artist Fellowship (2016); Digital Painting Atelier at OCAD University (2016); and Open Studio, Toronto (2015). Sasha is represented by Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles.
Irene Angelopoulos, Lead Illustration & Animation
Irene is a Toronto-based artist. She and her partner Christopher have been making a weird and wide range of art together as Catshrine since 2013. Irene’s artistic universe of surreal mashups and anthropomorphic creatures is distinctly flavoured with a pop-aesthetic, and her diverse work includes comic book illustrations, digital art and 2D animation, sculpture and wearable art, portraiture and interactive installations. Catshrine’s first large-scale interactive installation, Happy Cat Lab, exhibited at 3 museums across China as part of the TIFF digiPlayspace’s traveling exhibition. In spring of 2017, Irene co-directed and animated a music video for acclaimed Canadian classical marimba duo, Taktus. Catshrine’s 2017 animation and dance-inspired installation, Pop N’ Lock Dance Machine, has exhibited in San Antonio, Texas (The DoSeum); Brooklyn, New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music); Halifax, UK (Eureka! Children’s Museum) and Buffalo, New York (Buffalo Museum of Science). Irene will be traveling to Wellington, New Zealand to premiere the Pop n’ Lock Dance Machine at the 2018 New Zealand Festival. Irene and Catshrine have been featured in such publications as The New York Times, CBC, Vice, The Toronto Star and YTV’s The Zone.
Gloria Ui Young Kim, Creative Lead
Gloria comes from a long line of media makers. With a degree in English Lit from the University of Toronto, she has worked at numerous magazines, most notably Maclean’s. She’s an alumni of the Canadian Film Centre’s Director’s Lab and TIFF Talent Lab. Her short film, Rock Garden: A Love Story (CBC, BRAVO, IFC), described by Atom Egoyan as “absolutely beautiful” and “perverse,” has won numerous awards, including the Global Audience Award for Best Anarchy Film from Slamdance 2008 and the CBC Canadian Reflections Award. The Auction (CBC, IFC), premiered at the 2010 Sprockets TIFF, and won Best Short Film award, amongst others. It is now part of the John VanDuzer Film Collection at TIFF BellLightbox. Gloria wrote, directed, produced Flamenco, for CBC in 2015, which won a number of awards, including the 2017 Corus Fearless Female Filmmaker Award.
She has won numerous Golds at the Cannes Lions, Bessies, the Marketing Awards, One Club, ADCC, etc. Why I Dance… a short film Gloria directed for the Ontario Arts Council, has had over a million views on YouTube since its launch in 2012. Gloria recently directed an episodes of Sinking Ship’s Dino Dana (TVO, Amazon) and Riverbanks’ When I Grow Up (TVO) and is one of the two directors for BGM’s It’s My Party (TVO). Gloria is currently making her first feature, Debra and Mona, for which she’s received the Women in the Director’s Chair Feature Film Award, and was in the 2nd round of competition at Sundance Screenwriting Lab 2015; the 2015 Spotlight on Screenwriters; and the 2013 Telefilm Canada New Voices Award. Gloria has been chosen by Women in View as one of the 2017 Five in Focus and is also directing a feature documentary about medical marijuana for Titlecard Pictures.
Avery Plewes, Creative Lead
Avery is a creative consultant, costume designer, creator and artist specializing in culture, design, fashion, strategy and execution. Avery began her career working with Betsey Johnson in both New York and Toronto prior to moving into her career in film. Avery spent 2 seasons working on NBC Universal's Suits, has also worked on productions such as Hannibal, Resident Evil, and XXX. Avery made her feature debut as costume designer on Stella Meghie’s Jean of the Joneses. They also collaborated on her second feature Everything, Everything. Avery recently completed her third feature JT Leroy (forthcoming). Avery is in our top 30 under 30 and we count her among our biggest creative forces. Avery is available for creative concepting, branding & naming, cultural consultation, and consultation on product development and merchandising. She was recently featured as a Role Model in Teen Vogue.
About Lunch
Lunch is a Canadian collective specializing in creative services. A network of creators, directors, producers and artists, Lunch founded by internationally awarded Executive Producer Amy Miranda in 2009. Lunch has executed projects for brands such as Red Bull, Adidas, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, Clorox of Canada, Brita Canada, Red Bull Canada, BellMedia, Pee-wee Herman, Kid Koala, A&E Networks and countless advertising agencies.
