About The Filmmaker
Zara Meerza is an Indian-British documentary filmmaker, writer, reporter and creative producer. based between London and New York.
Previously she's worked on projects for the BBC, HBO, BFI, Sky Arts, Arts Council UK, and Warp Films across feature films, festivals, interactive, VR and TV. She has a background in both the music and journalism industries and holds degrees in Art History from Cambridge University, University College London and the University of Manchester.
In 2016 she was chosen by the BFI, BAFTA, All3Media, Creative Skillset and the National Film and Television School for various talent and development initiatives for diverse and underrepresented voices in film and TV.
She was a 2017 Producers Guild of America Diversity Fellow, a 2017 Black List x Women In Film Episodic Lab Fellow, a 2017 Filmmaker-in-Residence at Arts, Letters & Numbers (New York). She was a 2018 Sheffield Doc Fest Future Producer, a 2018 ATX Television Festival & Black List TV Writing Program Fellow, and 2018 Screencraft Public Domain Winner.
In 2017 she was also a Featured Writer on The Black List, a Finalist in the TCN Incubator and the 2018 Cinequest Screenwriting Award, a Semi-Finalist for the Sundance Episodic Storytelling Lab, the Screencraft Screenwriters Residency, the Screencraft Fellowship, the Screencraft Pilot Launch Award, as well as a Quarter-Finalist in the PAGE Awards.
Zara was selected to be Director of Film Acquisitions and Producer of The Shortlist with Suroosh Alvi which launched on VICE to great acclaim in 2021. As a producer she has also reported on financial inequality, politics, healthcare and law enforcement during her time at the multi Emmy award-winning VICE News Tonight.
Zara is currently a writer for HBO narrative series Industry. She was selected for the Tin House Summer Workshop in 2019, and has worked with Mother Jones and The Intercept in adapting journalistic articles for television. She has also been published in Roxane Gay’s GAY magazine, ITVS, the IDA’s Documentary Magazine, LitHub and more.
Zara has also served as an advisor, panellist, judge and screening committee member for the likes of the True/False Film Festival, the Camden International Film Festival, Open City Doc Fest, the Global Short Docs Forum, Doc Society, Women on Docs, BAFTA, Women in Film UK, BAM and more.
Zara is currently working on a variety of documentary and narrative projects, including feminist dark comedy ‘The Cramps’, ‘Yellow’ — a TV drama about Joseph Pulitzer and the birth of Yellow Journalism, ‘Marfa, TX’ — a feature and interactive documentary selected for Sheffield Doc Fest’s 2015 Devise To Deliver XX Programme, 'The Twins' — an essay documentary about Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, and an untitled feature project and non-fiction book about adolescent life during the Bangladesh War.
