Sophiyaa Nayar is an award-winning filmmaker from India. Her last short, "Chhaya" screened in competition at several Oscar Qualifying festivals including Chicago International, Tasveer, ISAFF and Beyond Fest. She was part of Chicago International's CIX Lab, developing and pitching "Mosque4Mosque," a feature written by Omer Abbas Salem. Her own feature script for "Chhaya" made it into the second round of Sundance's Feature Development Track and was a Semi-Finalist for the 1497 Lab. She is a member of the WP Lab 2020-22, 3Arts Make a Wave Grantee, a Definition Theatre ensemble member, member of Director's Lab Chicago and is an SDC Foundation’s Leigh Silverman Observership Fellow. She won the Black Family Prize for her film “Howl.” She has worked with The Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, The Public, WP Theatre, The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Center Theatre Group, The Shed, American Players Theatre, Writers Theatre, and Manhattan Theatre Club (Off Broadway). Along with collaborating with artists such as Chris Perfetti (Abbot Elementary), Cecily Strong (SNL), Nana Mensah (Queen of Glory), David Henry Huang (M. Butterfly), Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger) and Kenny Leon (A Raisin in The Sun).