About
 Irene Duma is a creative and versatile hands-on New Media designer/producer and director with an effective combination of creativity, technical abilities, and contagious good humour. She brings over 15 years experience in various entertainment fields, including theatre and comedy, film production, acting, writing and directing, and teaching to New Media.
Irene knows how to "put on a good show". Her strong storytelling and comedic skills were honed in front of live audiences as an improvisational and sketch comedy performer/writer. Irene has been a member of such popular comedy groups as Theatresports, What's Next?, The Rula Lenskas, The Rubber Chicken Picnic Theatre Company and Vitriol Garden, and counts over 500 performances under her belt.
Irene has written and produced three short films based on books for BookShorts Inc, and produces and edits their video blog series. Irene is also the creator and director of several original series for the web, including cult fave "Madame Borshka's European Beauty Secrets" for the multi-award winning site parody site "Happy Woman Magazine'. She has also written and directed the cross-media series "World Radio Webisope," which was unveiled at E3 in Los Angeles, and the short animated film "One day." Her short story "How Prozac Saved my Marriage" has been published in two How-to-write US college text books.
Active in the New Media and screen-based industries, Irene has taught New Media Design and online writing through The Design Exchanges's re:design program and at Centennial College in Toronto. She is also a member of the Interactive Ontario, the Association of Internet Marketers and is a Silver Sponsor of WIFT - Women in Film and Television Toronto.
Irene was recently awarded the Ontario Media Development Corporation's bursary to attend the Banff Arts Centre's Interactive Screen 0.3 program, and reinvited to attend the BNMI 10 year anniversar. Other OMDC awards include market mentorship bursaries to New York and to attend E3: The Electronic Entertainment Exposition in LA.
Irene founded Strange Duck Media, a TV and digital media production company, in 2001. She is currently writing and developing wireless games and properties, documentary series and features, as well as a comedy feature and a cross-platform comedy serial. Irene continues to act for film and TV, and has recently completed a principal role in a feature for Guerrilla films, and can be seen performing comedy in and around Toronto, and with her improv troupe, The Patio Set.
A creative through and through, Irene jumps at the opportunity to solve any problem, while her imaginative and constructive approach give her the tools to make truly compelling and entertaining productions. |
