Aneesa Khan
Founder & CEO
Aneesa Khan (she/her) is a Pakistani-American filmmaker, producer, and writer. A Northwestern University alumna with a BS in Communication and Media Studies, she has worked in film and television since age 15. She spent summers in Karachi interning at HUM TV, TV One, the Lux Style Awards, and the PR team for Coke Studio Season 10. Aneesa built experience in Pakistan before going on to work in Qatar, Canada, the UK, and now the United States. Her career has been dedicated to projects that champion underrepresented voices and female-led stories.
Her first film, The Girl With Anklets, an Urdu-language period piece set in 1980s Karachi and filmed in Doha, Qatar, won Best Cinematography at the Pakistani Film Festival Australia 2021 and was selected for six global festivals. She then wrote, directed, and produced Criteria Kya Hai?, a coming-of-age dramedy that secured $18K in funding and screened at ten festivals in 2024. She later served as associate producer and film consultant on Mirrors, starring Deepti Gupta (The Pitt) and Academy Award nominee Paul Raci (Sound of Metal).
Aneesa hosted the podcast Desi Talkies for three years and has held roles at Women in Entertainment, where she coordinated high-profile events including the Annual Summit, at Blumhouse Productions, where she provided script coverage and supported the development slate, and at Rifelion, where she managed logistics for screenings and industry panels. In the past year, she produced six independent films across various formats and genres, all led by South Asian and Muslim filmmakers.
In 2025, she founded Aneesa Talks, a film and media consulting company where she directs, writes, produces independent films, advises filmmakers, and manages creative media strategies. She is now actively venturing into feature film production, currently producing The Hermit, directed and written by Jibran Ahmed, managing investor relations, sales representation across multiple territories, and overseeing early development. She is committed to building production environments where creative teams feel safe, respected, and represented.
Rafa Farihah
Head of development
Rafa Farihah (she/her) is an Indian-American Muslim journalist, podcast producer, and filmmaker. A University of Houston alumna with degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Management Information Systems, she has built a career across television, podcasting, and independent film, driven by a mission to tell creative stories centering on underrepresented communities. Having lived in Spain, India, and across the United States, she considers herself a global citizen whose life experience deeply informs the stories she is drawn to tell.
She began her career as a video production intern at BuzzFeed in New York before interning at CNN’s headquarters, then returned to Houston to direct her first short documentary, which was picked up by the Houston Chronicle. She went on to join CNN’s documentary team, where she worked on the Emmy-nominated Taking on Taylor Swift, now streaming on Max, and later produced Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. She then associate-produced the VICE TV docuseries United Gangs of America before moving into podcasting, producing award-winning slates for LinkedIn, Wondery, and iHeartMedia, and interviewing talent including Bobby Berk and Deepak Chopra. Her broader credits include CNN’s Diversifying, NPR’s investigative podcast Sugar Land, and Wondery’s Redacted.
As a filmmaker, she wrote, directed, and produced Finding Islamic Art in the Bayou City, shepherding the project from concept through festival strategy. She has provided script coverage, screenwriting support, and pitch development for independent production studios and has worked with the AAJA Muslim American Taskforce to build a national database of Muslim subject matter experts, helping journalists more accurately cover Muslim and Muslim American communities. At Aneesa Talks, she serves as Head of Development, supporting South Asian and Muslim filmmakers across short films, TV pilots, and feature screenplays. Same Time Tomorrow? marks her second collaboration with director Aneesa Khan as Assistant Director.