Iman Zawahry (director/writer/producer)
Iman Zawahry is one of the first hijabi American-Muslim filmmakers in the nation. She has worked on numerous films that have played at over 100 venues worldwide. She has worked as a producer on the feature film Paperback with Moonlight producer Adele Romanski and Sundance alum Adam Bowers. Her short film “Tough Crowd” won an Emmy Award and qualified her as a finalist in the NBC Comedy Short Cuts to pitch a sitcom with NBC executives. She is the recipient of the coveted Princess Grace Award for her film “Undercover” and was selected as a Lincoln Center New York Film Festival Artist Academy Fellow in 2015. Iman also collaborated with the non-profit Islamic Scholarship Fund to create the first ever American Muslim film grant where she currently serves as director. Iman works to amplify the underrepresented female voice. She wrote and directed her debut feature film Americanish with a majority female crew. She currently is a professor of film production at the University of Florida.
Aizzah Fatima (writer/Producer)
Aizzah Fatima writers the often untold and remarkable stories of immigrants, women, and people of color. She has degrees in Microbiology and Computer Information Systems, and worked at Google before turning in her perks to become a filmmaker. She is the recipient of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art grant with Brooklyn Children's Theatre, and has written the book for the musical The Ten Year Test which is the first children’s musical to feature Muslim protagonists in the US. Her play The Scholar was commissioned and published by the Religion & Diversity Project (Canada). She co-produced the horror feature film titled Horror Time which is executive produced by James Franco. Her TV pilot Muslim Girls DTF: Discuss Their Faith is the winner of the 2020 Roddenberry Impact Award, and the winner of the 2020 Yes, And...Laughter Lab with Comedy Central and 3Arts. In 2021 she graduates with her MFA in Film & TV Writing at Emerson College. www.AizzahFatima.com
Ann Chaudhary (Executive Producer)
Ann is a television executive and producer with almost 15 years of experience in the television and film industries. She has focused much of her career on the launching and marketing of over 25 ethnic and international television channels in North America, the UK, and Europe for SoundView Broadcasting. As Director of Programming and Operations at SoundView Brodcasting, Ann has produced numerous in-house and client productions for television. Ann holds a Bachelors of Science in Business Management from Babson College. She started her entertainment career in Acquisitions, Development and Production with New Line Cinema, which fueled a passion for film and television.
Ann's love for storytelling led her back to film in 2017 when she joined the Americanish team. Ann is focused on projects featuring "Sheros," stories with strong female leads, about women and girls as well as immigrants, minorities, families and diversity created by women. As the mother of an ten year girl, Ann is developing projects that she hopes will empower and inspire young girls and women around the world like her daughter.
Mohannad Malas (Executive Producer)
Mr. Malas is the Cofounder of IRA Capital and CEO of Dana Investment Corp two successful real estate investment firms where he worked since his arrival in the US in 1985. Mr. Malas received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Manitoba-Winnipeg, Canada, and attended YPO’s Executive Program at Harvard Business School. Prior to arriving in the US Mr. Malas worked in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar where he helped establish Arabtec one of the leading construction firms in the gulf before it went public, that played a major role in the construction of Burj Khalifa the highest tower in the world. After leaving Arabtech Mr. Malas worked in the trading of building materials supplies.
Mr. Malas recently received an honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters from California State University CSUSB.
Mr. Malas has produced and executive produced over ten films including award wining films such as “ The Game Changers”, “1948: Creation and Catastrophe”, “ American East”, “ Americanish”, and most recently the Oscar nominated and BAFTA Winner short film “The Present” with Farah Nabulsi (www.thepresentfilm.com )
Roy Wol (producer)
Roy Wol is a third culture kid (TCK) and a p.g.a. marked filmmaker with a visual disability. He is a 2-time IFP, and an EAVE Producers lab fellow (Luxembourg, France, Spain). He is the president of Studio Autonomous, an IP development and production company with a multidisciplinary collective. Wol’s latest feature film “The Garden Left Behind” won at SXSW, and was named as one of the top 40 best LGBTQ films of all-times by Rotten Tomatoes. The film provided jobs to 48 people from the transgender community and was selected as a case study at 2020 Film Forum by Film Independent, LA. As a natural bridger by birth, Wol has dedicated his work to elevating underrepresented communities, advocating for the inclusion of artificial intelligence, and creating social impact through bridging intersectional experiences. Currently, in pre-production, his latest sci-fi series “Autom Reign” (Gotham lab project) is based on “Doppelbänger,” available on Gunpowder & Sky’s DUST Network. Roy is the co-founder of a new fundraising network called eBayMyFilm.
Paul Seetachitt (Producer)
Paul Seetachitt (Producer) is a Thai-American aerospace-engineer-turned-filmmaker. He earned a degree in rocket science from UCLA and was employed by TRW/Northrop Grumman, where he created instruction sheets for building satellites. In his spare time, he taught scuba diving and swing dancing and co-created Western Australia’s first food guide, titled, PAUL EATS PERTH.
In 2005, Paul earned an MFA at Florida State Film School where he was a two-time Coca Cola refreshing filmmaker finalist and a Princess Grace Foundation grant recipient. Paul’s feature-length writing and directing debut, ROCK JOCKS, a sci-fi comedy about a top-secret government facility that shoots down Earth-bound asteroids, can be seen on various streaming outlets.
Currently, he’s producing AMERICANISH, a comedy about three Pakistani Muslim women trying to balance their traditional values with the realities of modern life in New York City.
Paul lives in Los Angeles where he writes, directs, and provides coaching for first-time feature directors.
Chloe Weaver (Cinematographer)
Chloe Weaver is a California native - originally from the Napa Valley and currently living in Los Angeles. Early experiences with a video camera sparked her interest in cinematography, and in 2007 she received a degree in Film and Electronic Arts from Long Beach State University.
Fresh out of college, Chloe experienced immediate success as a 1st AC, and made her mark on the industry with shows such as The Last Tycoon and Secret in Their Eyes, starring Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor. In subsequent years, she has climbed the ranks of the camera department to excel as a Director of Photography in documentary, narrative, and commercial formats.
Chloe contributes regularly to Netflix’s original series Chef’s Table and is eagerly expanding her narrative resume. Recent work has afforded Chloe many opportunities to travel the world and expand her technique across budgets and genres.
Jesi Rojas (Editor)
Jesi Rojas is an LA-based editor who has a passion for telling women-centered stories. In 2017 Jesi was the recipient of the highly competitive Television Academy Internship Program for the Scripted Editing category and she is also a recent graduate of the Handy Foundation training program. Jesi has worked on John Wick 3: Parabellum, Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here, Hulu’s Chance and MTV’s The Challenge. She hopes to continue working on stories that focus on the immigrant, woman-of-color, and Latinx experience. Jesi’s first edited feature, Americanish, will premiere at the 2021 CAAm fest as a spotlight feature.