SUMU SATHI, CEO & FOUNDER
Sumu Sathi’s love for storytelling began when she first stepped onto a stage at the age of six. What started as a childhood performance quickly grew into a lifelong passion for the arts. Her early creative life unfolded within the Tamil Canadian community, where she performed in theatre productions that celebrated language, culture, and shared histories. Those stages were where she first experienced the profound power of storytelling—how it can bring communities together and give voice to experiences that might otherwise go unseen.
In 2012, Sumu began her television career as a host, director, and producer with Tamil Entertainment Television. Through this work, she helped bring culturally rooted programming to audiences across the diaspora while developing her voice as a media creator. She later went on to launch her own production company and channel, Mandraa TV, continuing her commitment to creating platforms where community stories could be shared and celebrated.
As both a stage and screen actress, Sumu has contributed to Canadian Tamil theatre and film, bringing complex and compelling characters to life. Her film work includes a key role in Niyoga, a feature film which won Gold at the Indonesian International Film Festival for Women, Social Issues, and No Discrimination in 2016. She starred as the lead in Catfish Café, a short film by Paradigm Studios that has garnered over 180,000 views on YouTube, and played a principal role in Now is Not a Good Time, a Toronto-based film that premiered at Hot Docs and the Cineplex, for IFFSA Festival Toronto. Her film Comical Depression was screened at the MISAFF Film Festival, while Midnight Murungai has been selected for multiple film festivals across Canada and the United States, including Canadian Screen Award–recognized festivals such as the Toronto Short Film Festival and the South Asian Film Festival Montréal.
Beyond acting and media production, Sumu is also a body-positive fashion model and has been featured on Toronto’s CityTV. She is also the founder of Shakti Empowerment and Counselling Inc. Her community organizing and advocacy work—both in Canada and Sri Lanka—have been recognized in publications including the Toronto Star, NOW Toronto, and Toronto.com. She holds a Master of Social Work and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Manitoba.
Sumu identifies as Tamil Canadian (Eelam Tamil) and comes from a refugee community; her parents are survivors of the political conflict in Sri Lanka and fled to Canada seeking safety. The resilience, courage, and enduring spirit of her community deeply resonate with the symbolism of the rising phoenix—a source of inspiration that fuels her vision and the creation of Sumu Sathi Media.
While these experiences deepened her love for storytelling, they also revealed something that stayed with her. Growing up, Sumu rarely saw women who looked like her leading media companies. She rarely saw women from the communities she belonged to represented on screen or on stage in ways that reflected their complexity, strength, and humanity.
Over time, that absence became a calling.
Sumu founded Sumu Sathi Media to help create the stories she longed to see growing up—stories where communities that have often been overlooked are not only visible, but centered, multidimensional, and powerful. Through film, media, and creative collaboration, the company is dedicated to producing narratives that challenge dominant frames and expand who gets to be seen and heard.