Ameenah Ayub Allen

Ameenah Ayub Allen is an award-winning producer, whose film Rocks (2019), directed by Sarah Gavron, won a BAFTA and earned seven nominations, as well as five British Independent Film Awards wins.

After earning a BA in Film & Drama and an MA in Theatre Directing, Ameenah began her career at the BBC. Her first role as an assistant producer was on Brick Lane (2007), directed by Gavron. Other notable credits include the Oscar-shortlisted short, The Road Home (2010), and Erase and Forget (2017), which was nominated for Original Documentary at Berlinale. After being selected as a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2018, she went on to co-produce Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava (2021) – having worked across all of Barnard’s features, most notably The Selfish Giant (2013) – and produce Carol Morley’s Typist Artist Pirate King (2022).

Over the past two years, she has executive produced BFI and Film4-backed short films; sat on several prestigious selection panels, including the Producing MA for the NFTS; covered Film London’s head of talent development and production for three months in 2023; and was invited to join the Film Skills Council by ScreenSkills.

In 2021, Ameenah completed two prestigious film business training and leadership programmes, Inside Pictures (winning most likely to succeed, with Thania Dimitrakopoulou) and Film London’s Breaking the Glass Ceiling.

Based on her extensive work in the region, Ameenah was asked to design and head up Screen Academy Bradford, a bespoke scheme created to address industry crew shortages and skills gaps with a focus on underrepresentation, offering training and support to 35 talented individuals. Tied to the production of the new BBC crime drama Virdee, which is shooting in the city, and the upcoming 2025 Bradford City of Culture, Ameenah used her extensive producing skills to achieve real change in the industry.

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