Cherien Dabis

Cherien Dabis is an award winning film and television writer, director and actor. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Palestinian immigrant parents and raised between small town Ohio and Amman, Jordan. Studying dance and theater in her youth, she went on to earn her MFA in film from Columbia University. Her trailblazing feature films Amreeka (2009) and May in the Summer (2013), in which she made her acting debut, both had their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. Amreeka went on to win the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at Cannes as well as a dozen more international awards. It was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, 3 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture, and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. Dabis has worked extensively in television as a writer and director. Her credits include Showtime's original groundbreaking series The L Word, USA Network's The Sinner, Fox's Empire and Netflix's Emmy award winning Ozark. She's also a co-executive producer and director on two seasons of Hulu's critically acclaimed Golden Globe-winning Ramy.