Diana began researching Italiese as part of her PhD. She quickly realized that the language she was speaking at home, that she thought was Italian, was in fact a blend of dialect, Italian and English. While doing her dissertation, she quickly realized that this was a project that would take decades. Concerned about the “ephemeral” nature of the language, Diana has created dozens of plays in Italiese as well as a comprehensive glossary of the language.

After departing from Canada's critically lauded electro/proto-punk band, Simply Saucer, Paul Colilli reoriented his life vocation as he moved from creating experimental music to academia. He was an expert on Dante, the Italian Renaissance, angelology, hermeticism and poetic logic.

Professor Marcel Danesi is a current professor and coordinator of the Department of Semiotics and Linguistic Anthropology at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He also holds the position of professor and researcher of bilingual pedagogy and director at the Forensic Semiotic Research Unit at the Institute of Pedagogical Studies of Ontario (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education). (Research in the Forensic Semiotic Unit) at Victoria College. Danesi has been a visiting professor at Rutgers University, the University of Rome, the Catholic University of Milan and the University of Lugano.

Sal Gentile is a specialist in language and communication with a Ph.D in Modern Languages and Literature, and post-graduate studies in TESL, Corporate Communications and Public Relations. As an Italian-Canadian, Sal has always shown a high interest in his original community. In Italy he wrote a thesis on multiculturalism in Canada and the Italian-Canadian community of Toronto. He is a member of the IACS, the Italian Association of Canadian Studies.

Christine Sansalone is an assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Laurentian University.  Born in Canada from Italian parents, Dr. Sansalone was raised in Tuscany, Italy.  She has been teaching at Laurentian University since 2005. She has been writing plays with Diana Iuele-Colilli for over a decade.