Gurleen Rai is a Canadian animator and story teller. She earned her bachelor of design in fashion design from Ryerson University in Toronto then attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City for illustration. Inspired by her upbringing in rural Ontario looking for insects and digging for dinosaur bones, her stories reflect her love of nature, open spaces and unusual friendships in a sometimes lonely place. Her films have screened internationally at film festivals like Slamdance, New Orleans Film Festival and Sydney Underground. She wrote, directed and animated Rosie & Joe, an animated mini series for Cake FXX. Get Up, Pierrot, an award winning animated series is a one-of-a-kind Instagram choose your adventure style animated series that relies on viewer participation to generate ideas for future episodes about a clown perpetually down on their luck. She's worked with Saffron Press, an independent Canadian publishing company focused on telling diverse children's stories. Gurleen illustrated their second children's book, Dreams of Hope - a bedtime lullaby ‍ Illustration clients include: The Baffler, Vox Media, Bitch Magazine, This Magazine, Plansponsor, Current Affairs, Saffron Press and others