Biography

Tanya Brunel, Métis from the Red River region in Manitoba, has been developing and producing motion picture, television and digital media content with a focus on Indigenous stories as an integral part of the White Bear Films (formerly High Definition Pictures) production team since 2001.

Tanya started as a Production Manager and Line Producer on multiple documentary series and in the fall of 2005 she produced her first dramatic feature film entitled Mr. Soul about a serial killer who preyed on Native women. Prior to that she produced 4 seasons of the award winning youth series Cool Jobs.

While continuing as a Line Producer on numerous documentaries, in 2007 Tanya also took a position as the Performing Arts Program Coordinator at the Manitoba Arts Network, the provincial programming body representing community arts councils with a mission to foster arts and culture in rural and northern Manitoba. She increased community presenter participation in the North, increased Indigenous participation from performers and community presenters, and implemented an electronic block booking before leaving the organization in 2009 to concentrate full time on her growing family.

In 2015 Tanya returned to developing and producing content for motion picture, television and digital media industries with the multiple award-winning films Juliana & The Medicine Fish followed by The Corruption of Divine Providence. In 2019 Tanya produced The First Encounter, an Indigenous sci-fi feature and Shaidan, an international Canada/South Africa Treaty co-production.

In 2022 Tanya co-produced her first dramatic series Little Bird a six-part dramatic series for Crave and APTN. Co-created by Jennifer Podemski and Hannah Moscovitch Little Bird follows one family's tragic encounter with the child welfare system, exposing the truth behind a racist, assimilation policy known as the 60's Scoop. Little Bird is a Manitoba/Quebec co-production with Original Pictures Manitoba and Rezolution Pictures.

An alumni of Trans-Atlantic Partners, Producers Without Borders, and Banff Diversity of Voices Initiative, and Banff Spark Accelerator for Women in the Business of Media; Tanya is a Program Manager for the National Screen Institute 2022 Telus Storyhive Indigenous Storyteller Edition.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tanya Brunel