Ali Naushahi

Ali Naushahi is a versatile director, writer and producer, who grew up in Bradford. A career in the screen industries always felt out of reach despite Ali being the first person in her family to go to university. A temp job at Bradford’s Media Museum prompted a senior colleague to recommend she solicit production companies for work, which led to a job as a researcher and associate producer on writer-director Peter Kosminsky’s Britz (Channel 4, 2007).

Frustrated by long periods of unemployment she decided to pursue her love for performance and graduated with an MA in Classical Acting from Central Saint Martin’s. She then spent several years as a jobbing actor before feeling compelled to return to TV production, landing her first writer-director role in a drama-documentary for US TV in 2016.

Since then, Ali’s keen eye for authentic performances (fuelled by a love of working with fellow actors) and a deeply empathetic approach to storytelling, often dealing with complicated and sensitive subject matters, has impressed. Her directing credits include Predator: Catching the Black Cab Rapist (Channel 5, 2020), The Bay: The Murder of Lynette White (Channel 5, 2021), Web of Death (Hulu/Disney+, 2022) and Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius (BBC, 2024).

Ali also writes her own scripts with a view to directing longform fiction. She is a passionate advocate for stories that focus on marginalised voices, outsiders and misfits looking for meaning, connection and beauty in an often unforgiving world. She currently has three short film scripts completed and is working on her debut feature script.