Najla Zaidi

Najla Zaidi is an award winning screenwriter and director. She has earned a MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA and is an alumna of The American Film Institute's prestigious Directing Workshop for Women. Najla was born in Pakistan and raised in Kansas. She was put into preschool, so she could learn English but that's not how she learned. She learned from watching television. Najla was so fascinated by it, that she grew up wishing to become a part of the process. Although all Pakistani parents want their children to become physicians, to her parent's chagrin and her great joy, Najla was wait-listed for medical school and went to film school instead. She has grown up smack in the middle of two cultures and knows firsthand the comedy and tragedy of living with your feet in two boats. Directing and writing for film and television is Najla's passion and the only thing she has ever wanted to do. It was the dream of the three-year-old and it is the reality of the woman today.