Emilia King
PhD

Background

Dr. Emilia King (nee Zboralska) is a Canadian Screen Award nominated creator, researcher and institution builder with a focus on challenging the status quo in Canada’s media system. She has a unique profile that combines professional creative practice with award-winning, rigorous research on media entrepreneurship and policy. Emilia firmly believes that innovation should be reflexive and ethical, and is on a mission to make entrepreneurial education and the entrepreneurial mindset accessible to everyone.

Emilia undertakes critical research on the industry, policy, technology and practice of digital media platforms, the anti-meritocratic barriers to achieving equity, diversity and inclusivity in communication and digital media sectors, and the conditions and experiences of new media workers and creator-entrepreneurs. 

She is the winner of the Toronto Metropolitan University-York University Communication and Culture PhD Dissertation Prize, as well as the prestigious Toronto Metropolitan University Gold Medal, the university’s highest award recognizing outstanding achievement, involvement with the university, and one’s profession and community. 

Emilia has also won more than $100,000 in grants and awards, has authored and co-authored journal articles and chapters, policy reports and popular news articles, and has delivered more than 50 public presentations and workshops in domestic and international academic, creative, policy, community and industry contexts.

A co-founder of Pink Moon Studio, an end-to-end production company focused on cutting-edge storytelling, Emilia collaborates with researchers and communities alike to create commercial fiction and non-fiction content (podcasts; feature films; documentaries) that engages social justice issues in captivating, accessible and entertaining ways.

She also has extensive leadership experience in her role as Chair of the Independent Production Fund, as former President of Web Series Canada, and as Expert Juror for the Canada Media Fund. 

Prior to joining Ontario Tech, Emilia led Toronto Metropolitan University’s Transmedia Zone, a media innovation incubator focused on helping artists think like entrepreneurs. During her tenure, she successfully steered the incubator to surpass sector norms, with more than 50 per cent of founders being people of colour and more than 50 per cent identifying as women.

A passionate educator, Emilia is obsessed with finding new ways to engage students through the use of new platforms and processes, including design thinking. She has been involved in the development and delivery of cutting-edge course design that includes international collaboration and co-creation, with partners including Hong Kong Baptist University (Hong Kong), Stuttgart Media University (Germany) and Seoul Institute of the Arts (South Korea).