Firdaus Kharas

Who is Firdaus Kharas?

Firdaus Kharas is a social entrepreneur and media producer who uses video and animation to better the human condition around the world. He founded Chocolate Moose Media in 1995 to produce for-profit and not-for-profit content for film and television aimed at progressive behaviour change. He was born November 18, 1955 in Calcutta, India, and is now Canadian.

His TV series and documentaries have focussed on health issues, children’s programming, human rights, dementia and refugees. He has won 70 international awards, including the ReelWorld Trailblazer Award, mainly for three public-service announcement campaigns: The Three Amigos, targeting the spread of HIV/AIDS; Buzz and Bite, focussing on protection against malaria; and No Excuses, combatting domestic violence. In 2006 The Three Amigos was given the Peabody Award. In 2011 he was nominated as a Transformational Canadian. Prior to his media career Kharas worked in the Canadian public service dealing with immigration and refugee policy and on United Nations affairs. He has travelled to 140 countries and frequently speaks at international conferences, trains animators and sits on media festival juries.