Nausheen Dadabhoy, is a director and cinematographer whose work spans fiction and documentary films. As a cinematographer her credits include LA FEMME ET LE TGV (2016), a live action short film Oscar nominee, Emmy winning ARMED WITH FAITH (2018), and Emmy nominated NOT DONE: WOMEN REMAKING AMERICA (2020), and most recently HBO’s DONYALE LUNA: SUPERMODEL (2023), and SXSW jury award winner ANOTHER BODY (2023). Nausheen's films have screened at festivals worldwide including Sundance, TIFF, Tribeca, Locarno, and have appeared on Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.
Her second feature film, AN ACT OF WORSHIP, about the last 30 years of Muslim life in America premiered in competition at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and broadcast nationally on POV. THE GROUND BENEATH THEIR FEET (2014) — her directorial debut following two Pakistani women who were paralyzed after an earthquake — premiered at IDFA in the first appearance competition. She is currently in production on an iTVS funded short hybrid documentary entitled, HALAL BODIES, about how Muslim-American children learn about sex.
Nausheen has been a Film Independent Project:Involve Fellow, Berlin Talents participant, Firelight Fellow, Chicken & Egg Eggcelerator Lab Fellow, newportFILM Documentary Cinematography Fellow, DOCNYC’s 40 Under 40, Open Society Equality Fellow and she was part of the inaugural cohort of the Pillars Artist Fellowship, which is supported by Riz Ahmed’s LeftHanded Films, Netflix and Amazon Studios. Nausheen is a founding members of the Documentary Cinematographers Alliance. She received her MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute Conservatory.
In addition to her work as a filmmaker Nausheen also works as an educator. She was a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and a visiting faculty member at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan. She has conducted workshops at SUNY Purchase, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Claremont McKenna College, and Bard College. She co-led a cinematography workshop for American Film Showcase in The Gambia, and has been a cinematography mentor for Re-Present Media and Chicken & Egg Pictures.
As a Pakistani-American she has straddled two cultures all her life. That often gives her a unique perspective as an insider and outsider. Her singular background and experiences come together to inspire her as a storyteller and help her create visuals that resonate across many cultures. She is based in New York, Los Angeles and Karachi where she broke boundaries, and was for a time, the only female cinematographer in Pakistan.
When she’s not on set Nausheen can be found reading comics books or painting quotidian moments of life as a documentary cinematographer.