Iyanah Bativala is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and photographer whose storytelling explores cross-cultural narratives. Raised in Mumbai after being born in New York, Iyanah completed a BA in Performance and Media Arts at Cornell University and an MFA in Directing Cinema and Digital Media from FAMU, Prague. Her work spans narrative, documentary, and branded content, with credits in high-profile productions such as the Amazon series Waack Girls, now avaialble to stream in over 200 countries worldwide . She was part of the writers room for the series, and is credited with writing three episodes. She also co-created the series Just Like Us, which was developed by Abunduntia and Disney Hotstar. She co-wrote 9 episodes of the show, which never made it to production. In 2023 she was hired to adapt the bestselling book A Murder on Malabar Hill, into a series bible, but the show has not been picked up yet.
As a co-founder of Rai Productions, a global women-led production company, Iyanah has directed content for clients like Shop Lune and Kayan. Her music video for “Be Alright” by Kayan was named one of Rolling Stone India’s 10 Best Indian Music Videos of 2021.
In 2023 she received the Best International Student Short award at the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival for her short Working Holiday (2022). Her latest short film, Nesting, has just completed post production, and will be distributed by the Spanish sales agent ‘Agencia Freak’.
She is currently represented by Matter Entertainment.
Contact
iyanah7@gmail.com
lenishka.gangwani@matter-ent.com