Playback is proud to present the 2024 cohort for our annual 10 to Watch. This year’s group of Canadian screen industry talents were selected from more than 250 submissions. We are rolling out profiles on each individual this month.

As a creative who has found themselves on the other side of the fence as a content executive, Jay Carolyn Wu is doing what they can to bridge the gap for emerging talent.

“I always try to be as transparent as possible in helping people understand the nooks and crannies of getting in the door,” Wu tells Playback Daily.

Wu is currently the head of development at Toronto prodco LaRue Entertainment, but prior to joining in 2023 they spent two years as a development executive on Bell Media’s original programming team, working on series like CTV’s hit drama Sullivan’s Crossing.

“One of the more surprising observations when I first started was that I would read scripts from really established folks, and I would read stuff from my friends and people who were trying to break in, and there was often not a huge gap in terms of quality of the writing as you’d expect,” says Wu.

So, they took the opportunity to forge new connections between those emerging talents and the Bell Media team, taking on as many meetings as possible with a focus on constructive feedback. They also spearheaded the inaugural comedy cohort of the Bell Media Prime Time TV Program at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) in 2022, which was exclusively for Black, Indigenous and racialized writers.

“There’s no reason why there’s such a lack of transparency, and it’s mainly because of how people communicate, especially with emerging writers,” says Wu, explaining that there’s a drive to be “supportive and nice” that can lead to miscommunication about why a writer wasn’t hired. “What I can do is disseminate information and increase access to the information.”

That drive has led Wu to serve as a mentor and advocate for underrepresented voices in the industry. Among their initiatives is the free virtual workshop series In My Toolkit, which was developed by Wu and co-run with Kourtney Jackson. Geared toward 2SQTBIPOC filmmakers, the workshops covered a wide range of topics, including networking, writing, direction, production design and acting.

Tina Apostolopoulos-Moniz, formerly a production executive at Bell Media before joining Vancouver’s Lark Productions as VP of unscripted, says Wu “had a really clear vision of what they wanted to bring to the table” as a development exec.

“They were very aware of the landscape and the struggles and the barriers that underrepresented talent face, and they were really driven to help create those opportunities and make connections within that space,” she says.

Part of that understanding of the landscape is due to Wu’s own experience as a filmmaker. Wu got their start as a video producer on CBC’s radio show Q in 2014, and found themselves “thrown into the deep” after former host, Jian Ghomeshi, was ousted following sexual assault allegations and the show underwent a rebrand.

“It was very hands-on in terms of producing, and a lot of camera and editing [work],” says Wu. “That was my bread and butter when I first started, but I knew that eventually I wanted to make films.”

In the following years Wu traveled the film festival circuit with a number of shorts including the 2021 film Toe the Line, which screened at Inside Out in Toronto and the Vancouver Asian Film Festival; and the 2018 short In My Mother’s Closet, which travelled to the TranScreen Amsterdam Transgender Film Festival, Sheffield’s Transforming Cinema and Boston’s Wicked Queer.

Their first feature, titled Yo We’re Dying, was selected as one of Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch in 2023, and for the Toronto International Film Festival’s Every Story Fellowship this year. Wu is attached to co-direct the film with writer Keisha Phoenixx-McLeggon, and describes it as a “comedy in the rom-com space in a very Judd Apatow tone.”

It was Wu’s creative sensibilities that drew them to LaRue Entertainment. Wu first met LaRue founders and co-presidents Matt King and Andrew Ferguson while the prodco was in development on a project with Crave. When they told King and Ferguson that they were leaving Bell Media, the two just so happened to be looking for a head of development to round out their team.

“They’re so smart and they don’t just limit themselves to what projects to bring on the slate,” says Ferguson. “They think a lot about strategy and how projects can move forward.”

King says Wu is also “one of the most connected executives in Hollywood North.”

For their part, Wu felt a similar kinship. “I really felt like [King and Ferguson] had a really solid intentional relationship with the writers that they worked with,” says Wu. “They’re very creative-first.”

Wu has been with LaRue for more than a year now, and already has a massive development slate to show for it. Among the series on the go is a half-hour comedy with Tyra Banks’ SMiZE Productions, which is “in a very good position with a broadcaster” at the moment, according to Wu, and a long-form procedural with Edmonton-born writer Heather Taylor.

The company is also building up its film slate. Titles include a horror feature with Elliot Page’s PageBoy Productions; another horror film with virgins! director Lu Asfaha; a drama feature with Aram Collier, the artistic director of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival; and a project with Joe Pirro of New York-based prodco Symbolic Exchange and Fae Pictures’ Lindsay Blair Goeldner.

Also on the slate is a family sitcom with Phoenixx-McLeggon, which is an autobiographical take on her life becoming a mother as a teenager and the dynamic of having adult and younger children.

“Jay does an amazing job of doing that being very hands on creatively, but allowing me to still have my voice heard,” says Phoenixx-McLeggon, adding that they’ve been a key liaison in navigating the needs of networks, producers and creatives. “To have someone so creatively aligned, but also keeping the business happy at the same time is something that Jay does amazingly well.”

They’re also continuing their work as a mentor, working with the Pacific Screenwriting Program’s Scripted Series Lab manager Kate Anderson to help connect Vancouver-based writers with the wider Canadian industry.

“They are a unique talent, they’re extremely driven and make decisions with the utmost integrity. They’re super aware of who they are, what they can do and the impact that they want to have. And I think every decision that they make reflects that,” says Apostolopoulos-Moniz. “[By] watching Jay, I think we can all get valuable insights into how we can better navigate the industry.”

Image courtesy of LaRue Entertainment