Shalini Kantayya, a renowned filmmaker, made her documentary debut at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival with the critically acclaimed film Coded Bias. The documentary is set to premiere nationally on the Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens in the spring of 2021.
Coded Bias has received widespread recognition, winning the SIMA Award for Best Director and earning nominations for a Critics' Choice, a Cinema Eye Honors, and a NAACP Image Award, among others.
Shalini's first feature-length film, Catching the Sun, premiered at the LA Film Festival and was praised by The New York Times as a Critics' Pick. The film, which explores the solar industry, was released globally on Netflix on Earth Day in 2016 and was executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Catching the Sun was also nominated for the Environmental Media Association Award for Best Documentary.
In addition to her work on Coded Bias and Catching the Sun, Shalini has directed the season finale of the National Geographic television series Breakthrough, which was executive produced by Ron Howard and broadcast globally in June 2017. She has also directed episodes for the PBS series NOVA and the YouTube Originals series.
Shalini is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fulbright Scholar, and an Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Her work has taken her to numerous festivals and events, including the Sundance Film Festival, the LA Film Festival, and the TED Conference.
