Anjali Nayar is an award-winning filmmaker and entrepreneur. In 2019 she was named one of the top 40 filmmakers under 40 by DOCNYC and a POC director on the rise by Free The Work.

Anjali is currently in production on a project with Netflix and also directing Just A Band, a fractionally fictional documentary about an Afro-electric pop group that wants to go to Space, supported by Cinereach and Sundance. She's also recently directed several branded campaigns for Goldman Sachs, ACER computers, Southern Company, Patagonia, the Mountain Equipment Co-Op, and the San Diego Zoo.

Anjali's last feature documentary, Silas (2017), profiled a network of citizen reporters using smart phones to expose land grabs and corruption, exposing multiple international corporations and the Nobel Prize-winning president of Liberia. The film premiered at TIFF in September 2017, played in almost 100 film festivals, and won numerous awards around the world, including a Director’s Guild of Canada Award. The film was acquired by Amazon.

Anjali’s last short film, Évasion (2018), captured the 17,000km journey of a Rwandan-Canadian DJ on a fixed-gear bike ride across Canada and to the Arctic. The film won numerous awards worldwide and was nominated for Best Short Film by the Director’s Guild of Canada as well as becoming a Vimeo Staff Pick.

Anjali's feature directorial debut, Gun Runners (2016), about two Kenyan warriors who trade in their AK-47s for the dream of marathon running, premiered at the Hot Docs Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix.  The film was nominated for both a Canadian Screen Award and Director's Guild of Canada award for Best Documentary.

Beyond film Anjali is the founder of  TIMBY (This Is My Backyard), a suite of encrypted tools used by communities, NGOs, and workers living or working on the frontlines of big business to document and share issues related to human and environmental rights. TIMBY — which is featured in the Silas film — operates in 18 languages and in 40 countries around the world. Clients include the United Nations, national governments, the World Bank, Oxfam, Transparency International, WWF, Friends of the Earth, and dozens of organizations and indigenous communities around the world.

Anjali sits on several advisory committees, including the Environment and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and the Documentary Branch of the Director’s Guild of Canada. Anjali is on the faculty of Cornell University and lectures more broadly in film, technology, environmental justice, global health, and journalism, with an emphasis on representation and democratizing narratives.

Before film Anjali was a foreign correspondent based in Nairobi and reported extensively across Africa and Asia for 10 years for Nature Magazine, Reuters, the CBC, France 24, and the BBC.

Anjali has a Masters from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, a Masters in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University, and a Graduate degree in Space Science from the International Space University. She's a Fulbright Scholar, a Commonwealth Scholar, a Governor General Bronze Medal Winner, a capoeirista, a former national-level and college soccer player, and a surfer.