The Tamil Creator

Milli Thangarajah ( @thiso_makeup ) is a published international makeup artist. She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss the kindest thing somebody did for her, balancing a full-time finance job with being a makeup artist as a side hustle, wanting to be an actress & what's stopping her today from pursuing it, how COVID taught her to slow down, why she's ter...

Vinnin is a 17 year-old Malyali/Tamil-Canadian hip hop artist from Scarborough. He joins Ara (as the youngest guest to date) on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss how he got booed the first time he got on stage, being influenced by Canadian artists (Drake [ @champagnepapi ], The Weeknd [ @theweeknd ] & Nav [ @Nav ]), being featured on the @NBA 2K21 Next Gen Soundtrack and how h...

Priscilla Sreedharan ( @priscillasree ) is a content producer and passionate storyteller who was an Associate Producer of Dragon’s Den ( @cbcdragon ) during its ascent. She later went on to do some interesting roles at both Cineplex ( @cineplexmovies ) & TD ( @td_canada ). She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss her time working with Dragon’s Den, wanting to be Pete...

Ravi Srinivasan was raised in a half-Filipino, half-Tamil household in Sarnia before moving to Toronto where is he now the Interntional Programmer (Canada) for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, @tiff_net ). He's also the International Programmer for the Hot Docs Caandian International Documentary Festival ( @hotdocs_ ) and the Founder/Executive Director of the South Western Inter...

Genevive Savundranayagam ( @genevivesav ) is a serial entrepreneur, brand builder and the Co-Founder of Mahara Mindfulness ( @maharamindfulness ) which created the buzzworthy "The Human Being Journal". She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss the spark behind "The Human Being Journal", side hustles, a fear of not living up to her full potential, quitt...

Suresh Sriskandarajah ( @suresh.sriskandarajah ) is a technology and business lawyer at Suresh Law Professional Corporation ( @suresh.law ). He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss learning a sense of responsibility from a very young age, how being a long distance runner helped develop his strong work ethic, why he has four degrees (BASc, BA, MBA, JD), other full-time ro...

Amritha Shakti ( @amritha.shakti ) is a Chennai-born, Australian-raised song writer who describes herself as a hippie with an MBA. She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss why she decided to get her MBA even though she is so passionate about music, the notion that money is love, having depression in her late teens, her admiration for Abdul Kalam, her strong sense of purp...

Mayuran Yogarajah ( @myren.y ) is the Head of IX Labs and Distinguished Engineer at Index Exchange ( @indexexchange ), where he joined almost 20 years ago as Employee #2 (he was 1 hour late to the interview), seeing it grow massively in that time frame. He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss being 1 hour late for his interview (when Google Maps was not around), transiti...

Manjula Selvarajah (@manjaselva) and Kirthana Sasitharan (@kirthanasasitharan) are this week’s guests on #TheTamilCreator. Manjula is a Toronto-based journalist, a guest host on CBC Ontario’s shows, and co-founder of Tamil Women Rising (@tamilwomenrising). Kirthana is a CBC news reporter and associate producer. They are both co-creators of the "Boldly Asian" series on @CBC.  They join Ar...

Chief Nishan Duraiappah (@chiefnishprp) is Peel Region’s Police Chief and the first police chief of South Asian descent in Ontario’s history (as well as the first police chief of Tamil descent in North America). He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss moving from Sri Lanka to Toronto at a young age, how he bamboozled his parents to avoid being a doctor, lawyer or enginee...

Chantal Sathi (@chantalsathi) is the Founder of CornerstoneAI (@cornerstone.ai) and the youngest female of colour to ever be on Oxford University’s (@oxford_uni) Alumni Board; she is currently pursuing her doctorate in innovation in science and technology at Arizona State. Chantal joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss the importance of self-discovery, being anti-religious...

Himalesh Kumar ( @himaleshk ) who is a LA-based tech entrepreneur, was the CEO & Founder of Tapdn before he ended up selling his company to Berkshire Hathaway (via CORT). He joins Ara on this week’s episode to discuss growing up with a learning disability (dyslexia) and viewing it as a “superpower,” the time he met Warren Buffet, why he started Tapdn and the ten-year journey he took before sec...

Samanta Krishnapillai is helping to drive social change as the Founder, Executive Director and Editor-In-Chief of On Canada Project ( @oncanadaproject ). She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss taking a break to work on her mental health, her goal of driving social change through conversation with On Canada Project, code-switching, ending silos so we can “stop letting s...

Thad Jayaseelan ( @thaddeus.10 ) has been the go-to barber for the likes of celebrities like Drake ( @champagnepapi ), Big Sean ( @bigsean ) & J Balvin ( @jbalvin ). He's also the "Teacher of Teachers" for L'Oreal ( @lorealpro_education_canada ) in Canada along with launching his company Gradient ( @gradient____ ), which got sales from Day 1 of launching. He joins Ara on th...

Kowshika Thanam aka Kow ( @dj.kow ) is a Toronto-based DJ who represents RLE Sound Crew ( @rlesoundcrew ). She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss the impact that other Tamil DJs had on her including the late DJ Brown Soul & DJ Divsa (@djdivsa), solely relying on Instagram and word-of-mouth as her marketing tools, being a proud feminist and aspiring to trail-blaze a...

Gobinthiran Kulendran ( @gobinthiran ) is the Co-Founder & CEO of Huex ( @huex.io ) based in Sri Lanka. Despite having to change schools 9 times, moving homes 21 times and losing everything except for one bag during the height of the war, found a way to learn about technology through a computer (that was purchased because his mother and aunt pawned their jewelry) left at his aunt's house...

Mathusha Senthil ( @thushaa ) is the CEO & Founder of sex toy company Thaen Pot ( @thaenpot )  and media platform Thaen X. She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss how her goal of removing shame from the topic of sex, positive/negative feedback that Thaen Pot has received, how her day job ties into her business, her poor relationship with money until her mid-20s and...

Ruban Kanapathippillai ( @rubanmusings ) is a entrepreneur, angel investor, charter member at TiE Silicon Valley and author of the "Accidental Entrepreneur" series. He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss how he's seen The Bay Area change in the many years he's lived there, why he decided to become an angel investor, building a company from 5 founders...

Sharon Bala ( @sharon.bala ) is is a Canadian writer and the award-winning, bestselling author of "The Boat People". This book is inspired by a real incident and is about a group of Tamil refugees who survive the perilous ocean voyage to reach Canada only to face the threat of deportation and accusations of terrorism in their new land. Sharon joins Ara on this week’s episode of The Tamil...

Vas Saranga ( @vas_saranga ) is an actor and entrepreneur (founder @theonlineactor ) who has made appearances in productions such as The Handmaid's Tale, Orphan Black, Little Italy, The Beaverton, Flashpoint and American Pie (to name a few). He's also Ara’s best friend of over 20 years and one of the best storytellers you'll meet. He joins Ara on this week’s episode to discuss how h...

Roveena ( @roveenamusic ) is a multi-award winning Canadian recording artist with over 1 million digital streams and 12+ million views on YouTube collaborations. Her music has received great reviews from media outlets like CBC Radio ( @cbcradio ) and Glow Magazine. In 2018, she co-wrote the hit song "Fearless" which was featured during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Her musical br...

Kartik Bala is the Co-founder and CEO of SnapSmile ( @snapsmile ), a tech app that utilizes Artificial Intelligence to monitor your oral health from health while acting as your personal AI dental coach. He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss his early entrepreneurial hustles, receiving CAD $25,000 in funding for his company through Next AI - A NEXT Canada Program ( @nex...

Dr. Saskia Sivanathan is a neuroscientist turned data scientist and is currently the Chief Research & KTE Officer at the Alzheimer Society of Canada who has also done stints at Alberta Health Services and the World Health Organization. She joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss her upbringing in Saudi Arabia, working at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, how...

After being forced to leave war-torn Sri Lanka and immigrating to Canada, Roy Ratnavel ( @roy_ratnavel ) started as a mail clerk at CI Global Asset Management and over the span of 30 years, has made the leap to Executive Vice-President at CI Financial as well as the Head of Distribution for CI Global Asset Management. He joins Ara on this week’s episode of The Tamil Creator to discuss his upcoming...

Luxy Thuraisingam is the Head of Global Partner Marketing at @Cisco; she is a scientist, storyteller and leader who has worked with the likes of @TELUS, BMO and @Rogers, in addition to previously being a marketing professor at York University in Toronto. Luxy joins Ara on this episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss female representation in the corporate world, three tricks Luxy uses to overcome ch...