GERRY DEE

Gerry Dee is the star of CBC's new sitcom Mr. D, and also appears on Gerry Dee-Sports Reporter on The Score and NBC's Last Comic Standing. Catch Gerry Dee on his Life After Teaching Tour. This former Canadian Comedy Award winner for Best Comic in Canada is also a former school teacher. He has appeared in "Canada Russia-72" for CBC as well as "Trailer Park Boys-The Move". For more information about Gerry Dee, please see his website at www.gerrydee.com

MARK BRESLIN

Mark Breslin was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. He graduated York University Honours with a B.A. in English Literature.

Soon after graduating, Breslin became Director of Theatre and Music for Harbourfront Corporation, an innovative cultural organization which produces events and activities at numerous venues on Toronto's waterfront.

In 1974, Breslin opened the first Yuk Yuk's, in the basement of Toronto's Church Street Community Centre. Two years and many sweaty shows later, the Yuk Yuk's flag ship was moved to 1280 Bay Street in the trendy Yorkville district. Over the next decade, Yuk Yuk's would expand to its present reach of fourteen clubs across Canada.

Breslin has written three books so far - Zen and Now (Somerville House), a popular Brian Mulroney joke book Son of a Meech (Random House), and most recently an autobiographical novel, Control Freaked (Insomniac Press). Add to this innumerable book reviews for The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and The Quill and Quire.

Breslin has been a broadcaster, having hosting call-in shows on Q107 and CFRB and having appeared as a featured panelist on multiple episodes of ROB TV's "The Art Panel" and Global Television's "Grumps".

Breslin has produced such television programs as "Late Night with Joan Rivers" for Fox Broadcasting, "Yuk Yuk's - the TV show" for CBC TV and "Mondo Taboo", two pay-per-view specials for The Movie Network. He was executive producer on "Friday Night with Ralph Benmergui" for CBC TV and "Yuk Yuk's 25th Anniversary Special" for the Comedy Network. Currently, Breslin is a story consultant on "Kenny vs. Spenny" for CBC TV and Showcase.

JAKE GOLD

Jake Gold is one of Canada's most successful artist managers and has been an active force in the Canadian music industry for 30 years. In 1986, Gold started his own artist management company The Management Trust Ltd. and shortly after began transforming The Tragically Hip into national stardom. He is also the co-owner of Kindling Music.

Gold currently manages the careers of Sass Jordan, Crash Karma, Lily Frost, Oliver & Sebastian Pigott and newest signee, Adam Cohen. The Management Trust Ltd. directs an extensive list of music producers as well, such as Moe Berg, Russell Broom, Doc Mckinney, Adrian Carr, John Whynot and Laurence Currie.

Gold has been recognized by the Canadian Music Industry Awards as "Manager of the Year" in 1991, 1993 and 1994. He has been a member of the JUNO Awards Television and Talent committee since 2003. In 2009, Gold was elected to the board of CIMA and most recently has been elected to vice-chairman. He is a board member for the MMF and also sits on the advisory board of the OMDC.

Gold has moderated and been a panelist at many major music industry conferences such as Australia's Pacific Music, Pollstar, CMJ, SXSW, CMW and NXNE, just to name a few.

JIM SLOTEK

Movie critic Jim Slotek has covered all branches of entertainment for the Toronto Sun since 1983. He was an entertainment writer before that for the Ottawa Citizen where he also covered CRTC hearings.

An avid fan of comedy, he moonlighted as a scriptwriter and received a Gemini nomination for Comedy Writing for his work on the CBC’s NHL Awards (for which he wrote dialogue for, among others, Mike Myers and Eugene Levy).

He has covered Montreal's Just For Laughs comedy festival on a regular basis since 1985. Slotek has been honoured for critical writing eight times at the Dunlop Awards, the Sun Media chain awards of excellence – with three wins and five honourable mentions.