Meet our 2013 Oscar night live chat crew

Meet the members of our digital Oscar party (iStock) CBC Arts reporter and red carpet warrior Deana Sumanac will be hosting this year's Oscar night live chat, which you can join here.

We would like to introduce you to the savvy panellists who will be joining her throughout the night.

Also on deck we have Arts reporter Eli Glasner (@glasneronfilm) live-tweeting from Los Angeles.

Scroll down to read about each panelist



Deana Sumanac, CBC Arts reporter and chat host

Arts reporter Deana Sumanac is a red carpet warrior who has covered several major award shows -- like the Toronto International Film Festival and the Oscars -- and has interviewed big stars like Harrison Ford, Keira Knightley and Mark Wahlberg.

Her work has taken her around the world, from Cannes to Glasgow to New York.
 
Jesse Wente, CBC Radio film critic

Jesse Wente is the Head of Film Programmes at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Before joining TIFF, he was as a weekly columnist on CBC Radio's Metro Morning and 20 other local CBC Radio shows, covering film and pop culture.

He has also been a regular guest on Q with Jian Ghomeshi and TVO's Saturday Night at the Movies. You can follow him @JesseWente on Twitter.

Naomi Snieckus, actor and comedian

An actor/writer/improviser/voice-over/director, Naomi is an alumnus of The Second City Toronto where she wrote/performed in five hit shows. She has performed in theatres across Canada including The Arts Club in Vancouver and Canadian Stage in Toronto.

Her TV and film credits include Degrassi, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Ron James Show, Being Erica and The Listener. She currently plays the role of Bobbi on CBC Television's Mr. D. You can follow her @Snieckus on Twitter.

Robert Rowat, CBC Music producer

Robert Rowat is the community producer for classical music at CBC Music. His interests also extend to jazz, R&B, hip-hop and pop music.

He's also sort of obsessed with fashion blogs and slasher films. In the past he has produced CBC Radio 2's daily jazz show, Tonic, and the Saturday afternoon opera broadcast on Radio-Canada's Espace musique. You can follow him @rkhr on Twitter.

Sterling Scott, professional comedian

Sterling Scott, a professional comic who lives and works in Edmonton, is a rising star in the comedy world. He has performed at the world famous Apollo Theater, inside Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, and for troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sterling writes for CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes and also had a role as feature correspondent. You can follow him @Sterlingsjokes on Twitter.

Erica Wark, fashion critic

Erica Wark is a fashion journalist and ambassador for individual style. She's a regular contributor on CBC's Steven and Chris, ET Canada, BT Toronto and CTV.

Her styling aesthetic is all about marrying unexpected pieces together, and inspiring others to look at fashion in new and unique ways. You can follow her @EricaOnFashion on Twitter.

Angelo Muredda, Torontoist film critic

Angelo Muredda writes about film for Torontoist and Film Freak Central, and covers ebooks and other digital texts for The Toronto Review of Books.

He has also written for Cinema Scope, Montage, and This Magazine. In his other life, he is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, where he works on contemporary Canadian fiction and film. You can follow him @amuredda on Twitter.

Radheyan Simonpillai, NOW Magazine film critic

Radheyan Simonpillai (or Rad as most call him) reviews movies and interviews celebrities regularly for NOW Magazine and AskMen.com.

A longtime member of the Toronto Film Critics Association, Rad boasts an M.A. in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto, where he also taught a tutorial class on Film History. You can follow him @FreshandFrowsy on Twitter.

Emily Gagne, Cinefilles film critic

Emily Gagne is a television and film critic and Web Editor for TV Guide Canada. She has previously written for CBC Arts Online.

She is also co-founder of Cinefilles, a blog written by and for female film critics and fans. In her spare time she likes to eat burnt popcorn, talk about Tarantino heroines, rework her slasher movie screenplay and quote Winona Ryder characters. You can follow her @emilygagne on Twitter.

Andrew Parker, Dork Shelf film critic

Andrew Parker is the Film and Performing Arts Editor for the Dork Shelf, and a freelance film critic, writer, and interviewer for CriticizeThis.ca, NOW Magazine, t.o. night and Entertainment Weekly.

He's currently working on a book chronicling the history of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise (due out in late 2014). You can follow him @AndrewJParker on Twitter.

Mishal Cazmi, fashion reporter

Mishal Cazmi is the assistant beauty and fashion editor at Glow magazine. Her work has appeared in print and online at Fashion, Flare, Elle Canada, InterviewMagazine.com and CanadianLiving.com among others.

Her most recent stint took her to New York Fashion Week where she covered the beauty beat backstage. She's also a pop culture enthusiast and a serial magazine hoarder.You can follow her @MishalCazmi on Twitter.

Phil Brown, NOW Magazine film critic
 
Phil Brown is an insatiable film enthusiast who has written for Now Magazine, Toro, The Toronto Star, Fangoria, Rue Morgue, C&G Magazine and Dork Shelf. If you ever need him, you'll probably find him in a theater. So don't call him because those who use cell phones in theaters are his mortal enemy.

Megan Fraser, writer and stand-up comic

Megan Fraser is a writer and stand-up comedian who honed her skills at the Loose Moose Theatre Company and Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club in Calgary.

She now lives in Toronto, where she regularly performs at the Comedy Bar, The Rivoli and Lunacy Cabaret. She writes for The Impersonals, and her sketch comedy duo 100 and 50 was part of the 2009 and 2010 Toronto Sketchfest. You can follow her @meganfraser on Twitter.