Sami Sabawi is a Toronto-based entrepreneur, producer, and screenwriter dedicated to opening doors for underrepresented storytellers. As co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Open Screenplay, an online platform, community, and marketplace for the film and television industry, he helped grow a global community of more than 100,000 writers and built partnerships with organizations including MBC Academy, RBC, and the Canadian Arab Institute.

Sami has served as executive producer on six short films, including the period horror short Kin and Lemons, produced with the Canadian Arab Institute to challenge anti-Arab racism. In collaboration with M Film Lab, he co-wrote and executive produced the award-winning short Exception, starring Waleed Zuaiter, which has screened at dozens of Oscar-qualifying festivals and is distributed by Watermelon Pictures.

Sami brings a storyteller’s instincts and an entrepreneur’s discipline to M Film Lab’s mission of amplifying voices from minority, immigrant, and underrepresented communities.