Two-time Emmy nominated filmmaker Shalini Kantayya directs films about what it means to be human in an era of technological acceleration. TikTok, Boom, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Her critically-acclaimed 2020 Sundance film, Coded Bias, was broadcast nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens and globally on Netflix in April 2021. The film has been nominated for a Critics’ Choice, and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary. The film won Best Director at the Social Impact Media Awards, and the Visionary Filmmaker Award at GlobeDocs. Vice called it “the most important film about AI you can watch today,” and The New York Times named it one of its most-loved films over the past 25 years.

Shalini’s debut feature, Catching the Sun, released globally on Netflix on Earth Day 2016 with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio and was named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Shalini directed for National Geographic television series Breakthrough, Executive Produced by Ron Howard, and episodes for NOVA and YouTube Originals. Shalini is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fulbright Scholar, a Firelight Media Fellow, and Concordia Artist Fellow. Her latest film, Love Apptually, premiered at Hot Docs 2026 and anticipates release in 2027.