Gursimran Datla

Gursimran Datla is a South Asian Canadian founder, producer, and creativepreneur working at the intersection of storytelling and technology. As founder and owner of BetterHalf Films, he develops original IP in comedy, animation, and interactive media, with a focus on Canadian and South Asian narratives, and he is open to co-productions. His slate spans scripted and animated work, including the South Asian Canadian comedy series Masala Love, whose proof-of-concept short won Best Ensemble at the 2025 University of Toronto Film Festival, and the preschool animated series Soso Park.

As a professional creator, Gursimran trained in Arts Management and Advanced Filmmaking at Centennial College and holds a Virtual Production certification from Sheridan College. He is an NSI Access BIPOC Producers alumnus and was a top three finalist in the fiction category at C21 Content Canada’s Pitch Pro 2025, validating his work on both creative and commercial fronts.

Years of navigating Canada’s fragmented grant and funding ecosystem revealed a problem he kept hitting firsthand: talented people miss opportunities because funding information is scattered and applications are repetitive and complex. That insight led him to found CanGrants, an AI-powered funding intelligence and application platform that helps creators, nonprofits, and organizations access non-dilutive funding more efficiently and equitably.

Alongside that, Gursimran is using technology to build products that can close or reduce the administrative tasks for creators, building at the meeting point of creative vision and infrastructure. Whether producing a series or designing software, his throughline stays the same: closing the gap between underserved talent and the resources that talent deserves.