Team Bios

Jonathan Finkelstein began his television career in news and current affairs with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a writer, reporter and producer for the local and national services. To date, he has created six television series and produced more than 500 half-hours of television programming that have collectively received multiple international awards, including a Peabody Award, a Prix Jeunesse International Award, and nine Gemini Awards, the Canadian industry’s top television award.

Finkelstein’s creativity, craftsmanship and passion for storytelling have resulted in the production and broadcast of several successful scripted and unscripted series, each of which has been renewed for multiple seasons, a testament to Finkelstein’s uncanny yet consistent understanding of developing and producing content that resonates with audiences. Finkelstein’s series also have universal appeal, and most have aired in multiple countries across the globe.

Finkelstein’s series produced at Apartment 11 include the BANFF World Television Award-nominated and Gemini-Award winner Prank Patrol, one of the first series in kids’ television to be formatted with both U.K. and Australian versions; the reality competition series and Gemini Award-nominated In Real Life, scheduled to debut in the U.S. in 2011 and currently airing on YTV, Canada; the Gemini Award-winning Mystery Hunters, which airs on Discovery channels around the globe and is set to relaunch in the U.S. in syndication in fall 2010; and the Gemini-nominated Surprise! It’s Edible. Incredible!, a healthy cooking series for kids.

In the realm of documentary filmmaking, Finkelstein also served as Executive Producer, producer and co-writer of the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award-winning documentary, Braindamadj'd... Take II, directed by Paul Nadler. The documentary, which originally aired on CBC Newsworld’s The Lens, has been screened widely across the globe, and has received two Gemini Awards, the top Japan Prize (the Grand Prix), and multiple awards from festivals across the globe, including Australia, Russia and Brussels.

Prior to forming Apartment 11, Finkelstein was the creative force behind several scripted and non-scripted series for teens and tweens. He served as the producer, writer and story editor for the science and technology adventure series Popular Mechanics for Kids, winner of the Prix Jeunesse International, and syndicated across the U.S. with a 95% market clearance. The series ran for four seasons with a total of 72 episodes produced.

Additionally, Finkelstein co-created and produced the documentary-style series YAA! To the M@X for YTV; and was the co-creator of the food and cooking series Fun Food Frenzy, for TV Ontario. For seven years, Finkelstein served as the Senior Producer for the weekly consumer affairs series for teens, Street Cents, which ran for seventeen seasons, and during his tenure won almost 40 awards, including five Gemini Awards and a gold medal at the New-York International Film and TV Festival.

Finkelstein sits on the Children’s Television Committee for the Canadian Media Production Association. He received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, cum laude, from Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, and spent a junior year in Paris at the prestigious Institut d’Etudes Politiques to complete his political science coursework in French.

Read more about Jonathan's youth series here

Mindy Laxer plays a key role in both the business and creative affairs of Apartment 11. Mindy seeks out licensing opportunities and strategic partnerships for Apartment 11's intellectual properties. She also manages the day-to-day operations of Apartment 11, from human resources and promotion and publicity to development of television shows.

Mindy began her television career at TVA International working in film then moved to TVA's children's division as production coordinator on the series Popular Mechanics for Kids and YAA! To The M@X. She spent a year at Galafilm working on the MOW, Agent of Influence for CTV and the family feature film The Blue Butterfly.

Mindy is well positioned to work at a company which specializes in children's productions -- before her career in television she taught elementary school for ten years, winning the Reader's Digest Leadership in Education Award.

Allan Joli-Coeur is responsible for finding new projects and new business opportunities for Apartment 11. He also oversees the financing of Apartment 11's productions.

Prior to joining Apartment 11, Allan executive produced three television movies (The Rendering, Guilt by Association and Wicked Mind), and two feature motion pictures (A Different Loyalty, starring Sharon Stone; and Guy X, starring Jason Biggs).

Previously, Allan was Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs of Allegro Films Inc., a division of the third largest publicly traded entertainment company in Canada (TVA International Inc.). He later became TVA's Interim President, Television and Motion Picture Division, where he actively oversaw the development, production, financing and distribution of over twenty-five productions, including MOW's, feature films, animated and live action television series.

Allan started in the Distribution division of Astral Communications prior to joining the Entertainment division of the law firm Heenan Blaikie.

Alberta Nokes is responsible for Apartment 11’s development slate. Her responsibilities include cultivating existing development projects, seeking out and evaluating pitches and developing new properties in the children’s and adult factual programming genres.

Nokes brings extensive experience in both broadcast and production to Apartment 11. She has created, written, developed, financed, executive produced and commissioned more than 500 hours of television programming including several international co-productions. Her many roles have included Vice President of Development for Frantic Films, Executive Producer and Head of Development for Associated Producers Limited, Executive in Charge of Production for History Television, and Director of Independent Production for S-Vox/Vision TV & ONE.

Throughout her career, Nokes also has worked with Oscar, Emmy, BAFTA, Peabody, Juno and Gemini award winning directors and producers including James Cameron, Ric Esther Bienstock, and Antony Thomas.

Prior to her work in television production, Nokes held the position of VP Marketing and Communications for Vision TV and was a consultant on communications and regulatory affairs to CBC Radio and Television. She has also written three factual television series.

Jason Levy leads interactive production and video post production at Apartment 11. He was a producer on Apartment 11's award winning TV series Mystery Hunters for three seasons and was nominated for a Gemini award each time. As an editor, he was nominated for a Gemini for his work on Popular Mechanics for Kids.

He studied film production at Concordia University. He is a technology integrator who has worked as a computer programmer, cameraman, sound editor and mixer, writer. He is a partner in the post-production element of the company, Post 11.