Montréal is a one-of-a-kind city — a gateway between North America and Europe and a bilingual haven of creativity and experimentation. And so, it makes perfect sense that Montrealers themselves are unique, original and unlike anyone else. Standing at the forefront of industry, culture, entertainment, the life sciences, invention and more, Montréal’s talent pool runs deep. So dive in! Here’s a handful of locals who, each in their own way, are impacting the world.
Dax Dasilva
Dax Dasilva is the CEO and founder of Lightspeed Commerce, a unified POS and payments platform for entrepreneurs. Dasilva is also the founder of Age of Union, which evolved from a book he authored in 2019 into an environmental alliance which brings together leadership, culture, spirituality, and environmental guardianship to support and inspire impactful changemakers. Since its launch, Age of Union has invested $40 million CAD in 10 impactful projects across five countries, focusing on protecting endangered species and restoring critical ecosystems.
Charlotte Le Bon
Recently centre-stage in the HBO series The White Lotus, Charlotte Le Bon is an actress, model, TV presenter and film director known for her remarkable television debut in 2010, when she brought her quirky sense of humour to the Canal+ talk show Le Grand Journal. She acts equally in French and English, notably in films such as Yves Saint Laurent, The Hundred-Foot Journey and The Walk, and in 2022, she wrote and directed her first feature film, Falcon Lake. The film was critically acclaimed and selected for the Director’s Fortnight as part of the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
Joëlle Pineau
A co-director of the Reason and Learning Lab at McGill University, Dr. Joëlle Pineau has been instrumental in the world’s AI scene as the head of the Meta AI research lab in Montréal for the past eight years, a position she will be leaving in May 2025 for her next adventure. Her research ranges from seismic developments in healthcare, to AI, to gaming. Her work at McGill in utilizing AI to improve the treatment of heart disease and cancer has earned her the NSERC’s Steacie Memorial Fellowship award and a Governor General’s Innovation Award.
Brenda Milner
Montréal’s role as a world leader in the field of neuroscience has a long history — see Dr. Wilder Penfield’s “Montréal Procedure” , for example, still used today in treatment of epilepsy sufferers 75 years on. Dr. Brenda Milner has helped shape that history since completing her B.A. studies in Experimental Psychology in 1939. Currently an impressive 105 years old, Dr. Milner holds more than 20 degrees, countless awards and an integral position within the legacy of McGill’s trendsetting Neuro institute and hospital — fully living up to her title as the founder of neuropsychology.
Yoshua Bengio
Recently named a international member of the National Academy of Sciences, Yoshua Bengio’s research findings and innovations are changing the face of artificial intelligence and deep learning. Besides acting as Scientific Director of the MILA (Montréal Institute for Learning Algorithms), being a Full Professor at Université de Montréal, co-directing the CIFAR Learning in Machines & Brains program and acting as Scientific Director of IVADO, Bengio’s Google Scholar citations number more than 750,000 and if that doesn’t say “resident genius,” we don’t know what does.
Alanis Obomsawin
Honoured with a giant mural portrait at the corners of Montréal’s Lincoln and Atwater Avenues, the 91-year-old Abenaki filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin is a ground-breaking cultural figure in the city. Since joining the ranks of Canada’s National Film Board in 1967, Obomsawin’s landmark work has made her one of the most acclaimed Indigenous directors in the world, having garnered numerous awards along the way — and her celebrated filmography has grown to over 60 films with no sign of slowing down.
Guy Rouleau
Director of the Neuro since 2013, Dr. Guy Rouleau has focused on collaboration and communication, bringing researchers and patients closer together in research and health. He’s contributed to the identification of over 20 disease-causing genes, and his research in neurological and psychiatric diseases have been cited over 30,000 times and form a bedrock of the Neuro’s continuing monumental findings. He is an Officer of the National Order of Québec, an officer of the Order of Canada and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Melissa-Ann Ledo
Melissa-Ann Ledo’s creative practice blends arts and 2SLGBTQIA+ initiatives stretching across Canada. She has over a decade of teaching and leadership experience in formal and informal educational systems, is a former Pedagogical Consultant for the English Montreal School Board, and was invited to co-create the Cree School Board's Arts Concentration Program Mikw Chiyam. She works as an educator for Concordia University and McGill University, where she is currently pursuing a PhD. As a proud queer woman, she co-founded exChange, an initiative that aims to build bridges and promote dialogue in the Montréal/Tiohtià:ke English-speaking 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, organizations and peoples, with a focus on intergenerational work.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Since beginning his studies in piano at the age of five (switching his focus to conducting at 10), Yannick Nézet-Séguin has carved a notable path in classical music, presently holding the title as the Music Director of Montréal’s Orchestra Métropolitain, the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York City’s Metropolitan Opera. He was the principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018. In 2025 he received his fifth Grammy Award for the soundtrack of the film Maestro by Bradley Cooper.
Doina Precup
Doina Precup’s trailblazing work in reinforcement learning is focusing the abilities of AI on positive social impact. She is Research Team Lead at Deepmind, a Senior Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, a member of MILA’s scientific committee and Associate Scientific Director of Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives, and interdisciplinary neuroscience and big data research initiative at McGill. Precup’s activism in repairing the gender imbalance in AI also includes involvement in AI4good, focusing on increasing the number of women in AI research.
Rita Baga
Rita Baga is the stage name of Jean-François Guevremont, a Montréal-based drag queen and television personality who appeared as one of the top three finalists in the first season of Canada’s Drag Race, then a top-four in Drag Race: Canada vs. the World, and finally host of Drag Race Belgium. In addition to performing as Rita Baga throughout Montréal, Guevremont has worked as director of programming for Fierté Montréal.
Vincent Leclerc
As co-founder and partner of PixMob, Vincent Leclerc has had a direct impact on the advancement of entertainment technologies in worldwide events such as the Super Bowl Half-Time show, for which the company has delivered crowd-captivating immersive experiences for five consecutive years now. PixMob crafts human experiences with light and new technologies that transform each individual in a crowd into a mobile, interactive pixel, turning the whole crowd into a huge living video display.
Inder Bedi
Inder Bedi launching what was to become one of the biggest global brands in vegan accessories straight out of school. Matt & Nat — named after “materials” and “nature” — was Bedi’s first foray into sustainable clothing. After selling in 2013, he pursued that line of thought with BEDI, a label of high-style utilitarian pieces made from material sources including upcycled seat belts, retired airline seats, salvaged furniture and regenerated fishnets. The brand ethos is simple: one day, everything new will come from something old. In 2021, Bedi was named Climate Champion by the United Nations through its COP 26 Initiative.
France-Margaret Bélanger
As Sports and Entertainment President of the CH Group, France-Margaret Bélanger not only is making sports history — being the first woman to serve on the Montréal Canadiens hockey team’s executive committee since it was founded in 1909 — she is presiding over entertainment giants, including evenko and Équipe Spectra. Trained as a lawyer, Bélanger first made waves and won accolades in the legal sphere. In 2020, she took a role on the NHL Executive Inclusion Council.
Harley Finkelstein
Harley Finkelstein founded his first company at age 17 while he was a student at McGill, and, after completing both his law degree and an MBA, he founded Shopify. He has been one of the “dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den, starred on Discovery Channel’s I Quit, and has received a whole bunch of awards and recognition, including Fortune’s 40 Under 40 and an Order of Ottawa. Still President of Shopify, he recently co-founded Firebelly, a modern high-end tea brand, and created Big Shot, a project and podcast that archives the stories of the greatest Jewish entrepreneurs of the last century.
Stanley Vollant
Stanley Vollant is an Innu surgeon from Pessamit who grew up along the St. Lawrence in Quebec’s North Shore region. From an early age, he learned strong community values through the traditional teachings of his grandfather. Dr. Vollant earned his medical degree from the Université de Montréal and in 1994, becoming Quebec’s first Aboriginal surgeon. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2022 for his visionary leadership in ethical governance and corporate responsibility, and for his transformative advocacy of collaborative philanthropy.
Léuli Eshrāghi
Curator of Indigenous Arts at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts since 2023, Léuli Eshrāghi is a mentor for the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq / Pijariuqsarniq Project, and member of the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s Indigenous Arts and Visual Arts committees. They have served on the Board of the Indigenous Curatorial Collective as a representative of the Great Ocean, and been part of a number of curatorial collectives.
Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël
As founders of the EMMY-winning Felix & Paul Studio, Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël are visionary creators that mix creative and technological innovation in VR, AR and MR to create immersive and interactive experiences that forge new frontiers in cinematic storytelling. They have collaborated with NASA, SpaceX, the Obamas, LeBron James and Wes Anderson, among others. In addition to creating their own original works, they’ve also sprinkled their magic on projects including Jurassic World, Cirque du Soleil and Fox Searchlight’s Wild and Isle of Dogs.
Sasha Luccioni
Dr. Sasha Luccioni is a leading scientist at the nexus of artificial intelligence, ethics and sustainability, with a PhD in AI and a decade of research and industry expertise. She is the AI & Climate Lead at Hugging Face, a global startup in responsible open-source AI, where she spearheads research, consulting and capacity-building to elevate the sustainability of AI systems. A founding member of Climate Change AI and a board member of Women in Machine Learning, she is passionate about catalyzing impactful change, organizing events and serving as a mentor to under-represented minorities within the AI community.
Sakchin Bessette
Since co-founding Moment Factory in 2001, Executive Creative Director Sakchin Bessette has spearheaded the creation of over 400 multimedia shows and installations around the world. He leads the studio in a perpetual quest to amaze, inspire and bring people together by exploring new types of entertainment.
Zébulon Perron
Over his 25-year career architectural designer, Zébulon Perron has completed hundreds of interior design projects, mainly in the hospitality industry, some standing today as pillars of the Montréal bar and restaurant scene. Recipient of numerous awards, this committed lover of his city is inspired by contemporary art and photography to create authentic and striking spaces that stand the test of time.
Jade Raymond
Listed among Variety’s 500 most influential business leaders, Jade Raymond is a videogame exec and the founder of Haven Studio Inc, a game development studio working on an original, new IP for PlayStation. With over 20 years of hands-on experience playing key roles in programming, design, production, studio-head and executive jobs, Raymond has 23+ games to her name (including The Sims, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Star Wars and Assassins Creed) with a resulting revenue over $5 billion.
Shawn Levy
If it’s a Hollywood film, chances are Montréal’s own Shawn Levy directed it! This incredibly prolific director began in television but segued to film in the 2000s, when he directed comedies including Big Fat Liar, Just Married and Cheaper by the Dozen. He directed the first three films in the Night at the Museum franchise and developed several comedy television pilots before becoming executive producer of the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing. Levy was a producer on the 2016 sci-fi film Arrival, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and since 2016 has been an executive producer on Stranger Things.
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