Wanuri Kahiu

Wanuri Kahiu (born 21 June 1980) is a Kenyan film director, producer, and author. She is considered to be “one of Africa's most aspiring directors, being part of a new, vibrant crop of talents representing contemporary African culture”. She has received several awards and nominations for the films which she directed, including the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2009 for her dramatic feature film From a Whisper. She is also the co-founder of AFROBUBBLEGUM, a media collective dedicated to supporting African art for its own sake. Career Kahiu was born in Nairobi, Kenya. She currently lives between Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya. In an interview with Vogue Italia, the filmmaker describes herself as a black sheep to her conservative parents; her mother is a doctor and her father a businessman. Yet, her aunt is an actress in Kenya and her uncle is a sculptor. She comes from a line of “strong, forward-thinking women”, with her mother being one of the first female pediatricians in the area they lived in. In her 2014 TED talk titled No More Labels, Kahiu mentions that growing up in Kenya, she didn't encounter a lot of love stories coming from Africa. Because of that, some of her work attempts to depict such love stories. Despite her family's professional background, Kahiu decided to pursue a career in the arts. At the age of 16, she discovered her passion for filmmaking that came from her love for reading and storytelling. However, after graduating from high school, Kahiu decided to get “a proper degree” at University of Warwick in England.  Upon graduating from the University of Warwick in 2001 with a BSc degree in Management Science, she decided to go back into the arts and obtained a Masters of Fine Arts degree in production/directing at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Theatre, Film and Television. Kahiu began her filmmaking career by interning for F. Gary Gray's office, which allowed her to work on the production of his 2003 film The Italian Job (2003). As she explains, Gray taught her to “keep an eye on the bigger picture but not to take the details for granted”. In 2006, Kahiu made her professional debut directing a behind-the-scenes documentary The Spark that Unites about a feature film Catch a Fire directed by Phillip Noyce. Working together led to Kahiu and Noyce becoming close friends.