Zoya Akhtar

Biography

Zoya Akhtar (born 14 October 1972) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. After completing a diploma in filmmaking from NYU, she assisted directors such as Mira Nair, Tony Gerber, and Dev Benegal, before becoming a writer and director herself.

Akhtar is the recipient of several accolades, including five Filmfare Awards. Zoya, along with Reema Kagti founded Tiger Baby Films, a film and web studio, in October 2015. She has directed movies such as Luck by Chance (2009), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), and Sheila Ki Jawani, a segment of Bombay Talkies (2013).

She has co-written Talaash (2012) alongside Reema Kagti. She then went on to direct Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) and Gully Boy (2019).

She is a board member of the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image.

Zoya Akhtar was born to poet, lyricist, and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and screenwriter Honey Irani. Akhtar's stepmother is actress Shabana Azmi. Her younger brother, Farhan Akhtar, is an actor and director.

She attended Maneckji Cooper and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Xavier's College, both from Mumbai. Later, she joined the New York University Tisch School of the Arts to learn film production.

Akhtar started her career as the co-director of a music video called Price of Bullets for a rock band called Pentagram. She has worked as a casting director for films including Split Wide Open (1999) and Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and as an assistant director for her brother Farhan Akhtar's films Dil Chahta Hai and Lakshya (2004).

She then worked as an executive producer for her longtime associate and friend Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007), also produced by Excel Entertainment.