Five AMPD alumni have been recognized in York University's 2025 Top 30 Alumni Under 30!
This year’s list celebrates alumni who are using their creativity, leadership and education to make a meaningful impact, both locally and globally. Among them are AMPD graduates who are building creative careers and contributing to the future of the arts in meaningful ways.
Eric Bizzarri (BFA '17)
Film director, producer, writer and community leader
Eric is an award-winning Canadian director, producer and community leader dedicated to fostering emerging talent in film. For nearly 12 years, he has served as the Co-Founder and CEO of the Future of Film Showcase (FOFS), a nonprofit organization that operates as an annual film festival with year-round programming, amplifying diverse voices and championing emerging Canadian filmmakers. Eric co-founded the festival during his first year in York University’s Film Production program. His work explores themes of toxic masculinity, friendship and intimacy in young adolescence, with films featured on CBC, Super Channel, Air Canada, Revry, and Amazon Prime.
Recent producing credits include Diaspora (TIFF, Palm Springs), Desi Standard Time Travel (Toronto Reel Asian, San Diego, Tallgrass) and Great Seeing You (Miami, Cinefest Sudbury). He also produced The Second, directed by Every Frame a Painting creators, Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos (Fantasia, Hawaii) and Conditions of Release, starring Eric Roberts (Warsaw). As a director, his films Mea Culpa, Pressure Play, and I Wanna Make a Movie, Or I Wanna Die Trying have screened at TIFF Next Wave, Whistler, Reykjavik and more. In 2023, he was selected for the Reykjavik International Film Festival Talent Lab. Eric holds a BFA in film production with Honors from York University and continues to champion independent cinema through both his artistic work and advocacy.
Laura Clark (BFA '18)
Production manager and innovation practitioner
Laura is an innovation practitioner whose passion is creating a more sustainable, accessible and creative world. As the Education, Outreach and Engagement Manager at the Ontario Centre of Innovation, she helps Ontario businesses prepare for the future while supporting their growth and connecting them with technology-adoption resources. Since graduating from York University in Theatre Production and Psychology, Laura's work has been devoted to supporting the creative community. As a mixed reality Stage and Production Manager for ten years, Laura has been passionately sharing the magic of storytelling with audiences around the world.
She is also currently an Engagement Strategist for the Al & Malka Greene Artists' Health Centre within the University Health Network in Toronto, serving as a Board Member for the Arts Orillia Board of Directors and a member of Mass Culture's Communications Working Group. Additionally, as a Playwrights Guild of Canada member, Laura explores feminist identities and ordinary acts of bravery in her writing.
Karice Mitchell (BFA '19)
Artist and educator
Karice is a photo-based installation artist whose practice engages with the representation of the Black female body through found imagery and digital manipulation. Her work critically examines vintage Black erotic publications as culturally significant sites that negotiate the intersections of race, gender and sexuality. By re-contextualizing archival material, Mitchell explores the cultural, political and temporal dimensions of Black femme representation, imagining new modes of agency and visibility. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including, the Franz Kaka Gallery, the Capture Photo Festival, The Polygon Gallery, Felix Art Fair and Praz Delavallade.
She was recently shortlisted for the Phillip B. Lind Prize awarded by The Polygon Gallery to support emerging artists working with photography, film, and video. Currently, she works as an assistant professor in the Department of Visual Art, Art History and Theory at the University of British Columbia. She is set to open a solo exhibition at Silke Lindner in New York in May 2025.
Valeriy Kostyuk (BFA '18)
Theatre producer and humanitarian
Valeriy joined the Canada-Ukraine Foundation as executive director in August 2024. A Ukrainian-Canadian producer with extensive experience in the entertainment industry, Kostyuk specialized in art and cultural projects. Over his career, Kostyuk has spearheaded major theatre productions, concerts and exhibits with leading companies such as Starvox Entertainment, Lighthouse Immersive and Theaturtle. Among his notable achievements are producing the internationally acclaimed Immersive Disney Animation exhibit, the WOW Las Vegas Spectacular in Dubai, and CHARLOTTE: A Tri-Coloured Play with Music, which became the first professional Canadian production to tour Ukraine.
Since 2020, Kostyuk has spearheaded the production of Ukraine’s first immersive exhibition, Immersive Shevchenko: Soul of Ukraine, which has toured internationally, raising awareness and funds for Ukraine. The exhibition has attracted over 50,000 visitors, including prominent figures such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, former President Viktor Yushchenko, Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell.
Samantha McCue (BFA '17)
Costume designer and Indigenous art advocate
Samantha is Anishinaabekwe from the Chippewas of Georgina Island and Ned’u’ten from Lake Babine First Nation. She is a set and costume designer whose work has appeared in theatres across Canada. She is an advocate for anti-racism and Indigenous artistic sovereignty in the industry. Her recent credits include: Women of the Fur Trade (Stratford Festival), Maggie (Theatre Aquarius), Rubaboo (The Grand Theatre), Little Red Warrior and his Lawyer (National Arts Centre/Theatre Calgary/Belfry Theatre), The Breathing Hole (National Arts Centre) and Kamloopa (Soulpepper Theatre).
She is currently pursuing her Master of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa, where she currently holds a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship for her research in Indigenous performing arts archiving. In 2023, she received the Pauline McGibbon Award for Emerging Theatre Artists. She was also a 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee, and a nominee for the Virginia & Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume Design for both 2023 and 2024.
About York U's Top 30 Alumni Under 30
Launched in 2021, York’s Top 30 Alumni Under 30 program seeks to highlight the success and diversity of the University’s young alumni community, while inspiring the next generation of young alumni leaders to make a positive difference locally and globally.
See the full list of York University’s 2025 Top 30 Alumni Under 30.