The best word one could use to describe Amyn’s upbringing would be: unique. As one of the few Indian-Americans in a mostly white Bay Area suburb with parents who were raised in Tanzania and Scotland, it was not unusual for Amyn to hear Swahili spoken at home while his Scottish grandmother made Indian curries alongside “shepherd’s pie.” This one-of-a-kind childhood produced an adaptable young man open to a variety of cultural perspective and experiences, eager to tell stories that offer an original viewpoint on life.
Amyn has sought out unique and diverse experiences ever since. Whether filming talented streetball players in America’s ghettos, mentoring at-risk teens in New York or venturing to the far corners of the earth to document the lives of the world’s least fortunate children in India, Nepal and Kenya, Amyn knows these journeys “off the beaten path” have made him a better writer and a more compassionate person.
After getting his bachelor’s degree at UCLA, Amyn received his MFA in Directing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program. He made his mark with “Little Man,” which garnered awards worldwide, including Best Short Film at the Slamdance Film Festival. He followed this up with “Take The A Train,” starring Kerry Washington (“Scandal”), which won a Kodak Cinematic Images Award, and the outsourcing comedy, “Call Center,” a viral Internet hit.
Since New York, Amyn has always striven to tell stories that matter by drawing on his own personal experiences. His feature film, Kissing Cousins, a provocative romantic comedy inspired by his own family dynamics, won the Audience Choice Award at the Asian American Int’l Film Festival. “The Other Side” for PBS/ITVS’s Futurestates series delved into the controversial issue of illegal immigration.
Amyn was honored to be a 2010 Disney/ABC Directing Fellow, which resulted in directing an episode of ABC’s “Private Practice.” More recently, he completed the Warner Brothers Television Directors Workshop and was a finalist for the Disney/ABC Writing Fellowship. While seeking out new opportunities as a writer and director, Amyn is also pitching his two new TV dramas, the “shark-out-of-water” Fishkill (with Wendy Finerman Prods.) and the crime saga Community Gun (with Cinema Gypsy Prods.) and will be directing his second and third episodes of the CW’s “Supernatural” this winter.
Awards & Honors:
Winner of the 2106 Cinestory Fellowship for "Chokora"
Martin Scorsese Young Filmmaker Award
Perry Ellis Breakthrough Filmmaker Award
Film Independent Award of Recognition
Best Short Film: Slamdance, Melbourne, Marin County
DGA/ABC Directing Fellow
Warner Brothers Master Class in Directing Fellow
2014 Film Independent Directors Lab Fellow
To see more of Amyn's work, visit www.amynkaderali.com