Aneesh Chaganty (; born January 30, 1991) is an American film director and screenwriter. He made his feature film directorial debut with the 2018 thriller ''

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'', for which he won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the

2018 Sundance Film Festival The 2018 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 18 to January 28, 2018. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 29, 2017. Awards The following awards were presented: * U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award: '' Th ...

Early life and background

Aneesh Chaganty was born in

Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census, up from 54,144 in 2010. Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. With an an ...

, and grew up in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. His parents, originally from

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, moved to the U.S. in the 1980s. His father, who obtained an

MS degree MS, ms, Ms, M.S., etc. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ms.'' (magazine), an American feminist magazine * Metal Storm (webzine), a heavy metal website based in Estonia Businesses and organizations * MS-13, criminal gang * Missionaries ...

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from

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

, serves as a director and Chief Technology Officer at a software publishing, consultancy and supply company founded by both his parents, AppEnsure Inc. Chaganty attended Valley Christian High School from 2005 to 2009. He graduated from

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

in 2013 with a degree in film and television production.

Film career

In 2014, Chaganty's two minute short film, a

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spot called ''Seeds'', became an internet sensation after garnering more than 1 million

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views in 24 hours. Following its success, Chaganty was invited to join the Google 5 team at

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Creative Lab in New York City, where he spent two years developing, writing and directing Google

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. After working on over 25 short films and videos, Chaganty directed his first feature film, ''

'', which was originally pitched as a

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

but was offered a production budget for a feature instead, was released on August 24, 2018 before opening wide on August 31, also premiering at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

on January 21, 2018. Chaganty's second film ''

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'', a thriller starring

Sarah Paulson Sarah Catharine Paulson (born December 17, 1974) is an American actress. She began her acting career in New York City stage productions before starring in the short-lived television series '' American Gothic'' (1995–1996) and '' Jack & Jill' ...

and Kiera Allen, was set to be released on January 24, 2020, then May 8, 2020, but was pushed back because of the

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, and was released on

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on November 20, 2020, and internationally by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

on April 2, 2021.

Filmography

Short films

Feature films

Acting credits

TV roles

Film roles

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
The New York Times: Searching
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaganty, Aneesh 1991 births American film directors of Indian descent American male television actors Living people University of Southern California alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni American male writers of Indian descent Film directors from California People from San Jose, California American people of Telugu descent Alfred P. Sloan Prize winners American screenwriters of Indian descent Screenwriters from California American people of Indian descent Indian filmmakers