Nisha Ganatra (born June 25, 1974)
is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actress of Indian descent. She wrote, directed, and produced the independent comedy drama ''
Chutney Popcorn
''Chutney Popcorn'' is a 1999 comedy-drama film starring, directed and co-written by Nisha Ganatra. Ganatra plays a young lesbian Indian American woman called Reena. Jill Hennessy plays her girlfriend Lisa and Reena's mother and sister are play ...
'' (1999) and later directed the independent film ''
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
'' (2003) and the romantic-comedy
''Cake'' (2005). Ganatra has directed for numerous television shows, including ''
The Real World,
Transparent
Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to:
* Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material
They may also refer to:
Literal uses
* Transparency (photography), a still, ...
,
You Me Her,
Better Things,'' and ''
Brooklyn Nine-Nine''. She also directed the
comedy-dramas
''Late Night'' (2019) and ''
The High Note
''The High Note'' is a 2020 American comedy-drama film directed by Nisha Ganatra and written by Flora Greeson. It stars Dakota Johnson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Zoë Chao, Bill Pullman, Eddie Izzard, and Ice Cube, and follows a fa ...
'' (2020). Ganatra served as a consulting producer on the first season of ''
Transparent
Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to:
* Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material
They may also refer to:
Literal uses
* Transparency (photography), a still, ...
,'' for which she was nominated for the 2015
Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Early life and education
Ganatra explored her interest in film through acting and then decided to make the switch to pursue film-making as she wanted to effect cultural change.
Ganatra began her film-making journey by studying at
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Though she wasn't studying film, she explored her interest by sneaking into screenwriting classes which eventually led her to creating short films.
She moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
to pursue a film degree at
New York University Film School (NYU). During her time there, she created a short film ''Junky Punky Girlz'' (1997) which won NYU's Tisch Fellowship
and most outstanding short film from
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
.
Ganatra graduated from the
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
(NYU)
Tisch School of the Arts
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University.
Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...
.
Career
While in film school, Ganatra directed several episodes of MTV's long-running television series ''
The Real World in 2001.''
Prior to this she had written and directed two shorts and her critically acclaimed independent film ''
Chutney Popcorn
''Chutney Popcorn'' is a 1999 comedy-drama film starring, directed and co-written by Nisha Ganatra. Ganatra plays a young lesbian Indian American woman called Reena. Jill Hennessy plays her girlfriend Lisa and Reena's mother and sister are play ...
'' (1999).
Ganatra is part of a mentorship program with NBC which seeks to provide talented female directors with the same opportunities as their male counterparts. This program selects female directors to be given the opportunity to shadow up to three episodes of an NBC series. The participants will then be able to direct at least one episode of the series in which she has been shadowing.
When Ganatra was on the hunt for a cinematographer, she began to notice that the men's reels were far superior compared to the women's reels.
As a female director herself, she was accustomed to being overlooked in the hiring process in favor of men. She realized that the men had better reels not because they were more talented, but instead, because they had been given bigger budgets, better equipment, larger crews, and elaborate productions.
This motivated Ganatra to hire a female cinematographer and strive to hire female crews. In 2020, it was reported that
ABC had put into development a single-camera matchmaking comedy written, directed, and produced by Ganatra.
Personal life
Ganatra is out and identifies as a lesbian.
Filmography
Film
TV series
Director
* ''
The Real World: Back to New York'' (2001) (4 episodes)
* ''
The Real World/
Road Rules
''Road Rules'' is an MTV reality show that was a sister show of the network's flagship reality show, '' The Real World''. The series debuted on July 19, 1995, and ended on May 9, 2007. This allowed ''Road Rules'' a total of 14 seasons and 12 yea ...
:
Battle of the Seasons'' (2002) (1 episode)
* ''Futurestates'' (2011) (1 episode)
* ''
Haven'' (2012) (1 episode)
* ''
Big Time Rush
''Big Time Rush'' is an American musical sitcom television series created by Scott Fellows that originally aired on Nickelodeon from November 28, 2009, to July 25, 2013 and is currently available in Paramount+. It focuses on the Hollywood misa ...
'' (2012) (1 episode)
* ''
Transparent
Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to:
* Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material
They may also refer to:
Literal uses
* Transparency (photography), a still, ...
'' (2014) (3 episodes)
* ''
The Mindy Project
''The Mindy Project'' is an American romantic comedy television series created by and starring Mindy Kaling that began airing on Fox in September 2012 and finished its run of six seasons on Hulu in November 2017. The series was co-produced by Un ...
'' (2015) (1 episode)
* ''
Mr. Robot
''Mr. Robot'' is an American drama thriller television series created by Sam Esmail for USA Network. It stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with social anxiety disorder, clinical depression and dissociati ...
'' (2015) (1 episode)
* ''
Married
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
'' (2015) (3 episodes)
* ''
Red Oaks
The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ' ...
'' (2015) (2 episodes)
* ''
Shameless'' (2016) (1 episode)
* ''
Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' (2016) (1 episode)
* ''
You Me Her'' (2016) (10 episodes)
* ''
Better Things'' (2016) (3 episodes)
* ''
Girls
A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.c ...
'' (2017) (1 episode)
* ''
Dear White People
''Dear White People'' is a 2014 American satirical dark comedy-drama film written, directed and co-produced by Justin Simien. The film focuses on escalating racial tensions at a fictitious, prestigious Ivy League college from the perspective of ...
'' (2017) (2 episodes)
* ''
Fresh Off The Boat
The phrase fresh off the boat ''(FOB)'', off the boat ''(OTB)'', are sometimes-derogatory terms used to describe immigrants who have arrived from a foreign nation and have yet to assimilate into the host nation's culture, language, and behavior, ...
'' (2017) (1 episode)
* ''
Future Man
Roy Wilfred Wooten (born October 13, 1957), also known as RoyEl, best known by his stage name Future Man (also written Futureman and known to fans as Futche) is an American musician, inventor and composer.
He is best known as a member of jazz ...
'' (2017)
* ''
Love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...
'' (2018)
* ''
Black Monday'' (2019) (1 episode)
* ''
And Just Like That...'' (2022)
Screenwriter
* ''Futurestates'' (2011) (TV series, 1 episode)
Producer
* ''Margaret Cho: Beautiful'' (2009), field producer
* ''Cho Dependent'' (2011), field producer
* ''
Transparent
Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to:
* Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material
They may also refer to:
Literal uses
* Transparency (photography), a still, ...
'' (2014) (TV series, 10 episodes), consulting producer
* ''
You Me Her'' (2016) (TV series, 10 episodes), co-executive producer
* ''
Better Things'' (2016) (TV series, 9 episodes), co-executive producer
See also
*
List of female film and television directors
This is a list of female film and television directors. Their works may include live action and/or animated features, shorts, documentaries, telemovies, TV programs, or videos.
A
* Jennifer Abbott (Canada)
* Sarah Abbott (Canada
* Jenn ...
*
List of lesbian filmmakers
This is a list of lesbian filmmakers. The names listed include directors, producers, and screenwriters of feature films, television movies, documentaries and short films; and have received coverage or been recognized in reliable, authoritative ...
*
List of LGBT-related films directed by women
This is a list of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-related films that were directed by women. LGBT-themed films directed by women – especially, but not exclusively, lesbian-themed movies – are an important and distinct subset of the gen ...
References
External links
Official site
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ganatra, Nisha
1974 births
Living people
Canadian film actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian television directors
Canadian women film directors
Canadian lesbian actresses
Lesbian artists
LGBT film directors
Canadian women television directors
Canadian actresses of Indian descent
Actresses from Vancouver
Film directors from Vancouver
LGBT television directors
Asian-Canadian filmmakers