Season 2 of Canadian Screen Award nominee The Squeaky Wheel: Canada debuts July 6 on AMI-tv and AMI+
TORONTO, June 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- They’re back and squeakier than ever! AMI and Hitsby Entertainment are pleased to announce that Season 2 of The Squeaky Wheel: Canada will debut Monday, July 6, at 9 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv, AMI+ and on AMI’s YouTube channel.
The Squeaky Wheel: Canada is a six-episode half-hour sketch comedy series in a satirical news format, based on the online publication The Squeaky Wheel. Created and led by writers and performers from the disability community, the series pokes fun at the ableist world we live in, flipping the lens to tell stories from the inside out. It’s a sharp, character-driven comedy with a very irreverent point of view.
In Season 2, the newsroom expands into a fully realized world of recurring characters, field reports and signature segments. Anchored by Arianna Salara (Gaitrie Persaud-Killings) and Grant Gewürztraminer (Graham Kent), a Deaf and hearing duo whose banter is equal parts dry and teasing, the show delivers headlines, field reports and expert analysis that start from lived experience and spiral into bold, absurd comedy.
“One thing we learned while making Season 2 is that comedy isn’t a finite resource,” says showrunner and series producer, Michelle Asgarali. “The more Disabled voices you add—whether that’s in the writers’ room, on set, in front of the camera, or in the edit suite—the weirder, sharper and more delightfully unhinged the ideas become.”
“What makes this series so real is that the jokes come from the people who live the punchline,” says Cara Nye, Director of Content and Production at AMI. “When your writers’ room has actually lived in the world they're satirizing, you don’t have to make up the absurdity. That’s what makes The Squeaky Wheel: Canada so fun, and sometimes uncomfortable to watch.”
Across the season, The Squeaky Wheel: Canada finds its comedy in the friction, the contradictions, and the moments that feel all too familiar.
Returning characters Mikey D’Ambrosio, formerly a drug dealer, and Guy Capitalism, once a Wall Street bro, now turn their hand to politics. Mikey lands on Parliament Hill as a correspondent, while Guy becomes the failing-upward Minister of Tokenism.
They’re joined by a lineup of new correspondents: Mistress Painelope, a dominatrix-turned-economic expert who approaches capitalism with a very specific set of rules; Rainey Delaney, a weather reporter whose body—comorbidities and all—predicts the forecast; Polly Kakipolis, a traffic reporter navigating the city one failed commute at a time; and Megan Mapledon, an unapologetically Canadian international reporter covering global stories with local confidence.
New signature segments include “Comeback Queen,” an on-demand, video call from your go-to drag queen to say exactly what ableism deserves to hear, and “Bed Banshee,” forecasting the future from her bed. Alongside Top 5s and pop culture segments, each episode builds within a structured news format, shifting in scale, tone and perspective.
The season is directed by Lucy Belgum; and Courage (Natasha) Bacchus is the Director of Artistic Sign Language. With Persaud-Killings and Kent on the anchor desk and Rogue Benjamin as the Voice of Arianna, the series brings back its core ensemble—Margaret Rose, Samantha Wyss, Sivert Das and Wesley Magee-Saxton—with a rotating troupe of guest performers including Taylor Efford, Desiree Walsh, Gabi De Leon, Jaideep Goray, James Jordan, Jessica Rotolo, Jo-Ann Martin, Taylor Long, Tyra Banda, Ben Akuoko, Kathy Beitz, Angela Sun, Violet Ferguson, Joe Fornasier and Theodore Walker Robinson.
The writing team includes head writer D Cole, staff writers Daniel Barra-Berger, Jenny Lee-Gilmore, Sierra Haynes, Ebony Gooden and Jonathan Fournier, and contributing writers Veronika Swartz, Ardra Shephard, Hisham Kelati, Joze Piranian and Margaret Rose.
Season 1 of The Squeaky Wheel: Canada received Canadian Screen Award nominations in 2025 for Best Sketch Comedy or Series and Best Performance, Sketch Comedy or Series; the series was a finalist for the Excellence Award for Representation of Disability in the Scripted Category, Diversify TV MIPCOM; and a high scoring case study in the UCLA Authentic Inclusive Representation (AIR 3.0) report.
Executive producers for The Squeaky Wheel: Canada are Andrew Morris, Laura Jabalee Johnston and Steven Verdile.
About Hitsby Entertainment
Hitsby Entertainment is a Toronto-based media company dedicated to championing breakout comedic storytellers who traditionally have not had a seat at the table. The company fosters an inclusive creative environment to craft bold, fresh, premium content for audiences worldwide.
About AMI
AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services—AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French—and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation and positive portrayal. To learn more visit AMI.ca and AMItele.ca.
For media inquiries and information, please contact:
Greg David, Communications Specialist, Accessible Media Inc., Greg.David@ami.ca, 647-417-0631
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/827f00d3-8de6-40f9-9862-52e0f1e5dd71
The Squeaky Wheel: Canada
The cast of The Squeaky Wheel: Canada
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