Shruti Parekh
Shruti Parekh is an award-winning filmmaker and artist who tells intimate and incisive stories of life on the margins. Her work spans fiction, documentary, journalism, animation, music videos, and photography.
Her most recent narrative short film, ZARI, won the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at NewFest and was nominated for Best Narrative Short at Austin Film Festival. She wrote and directed ZARI as a winner of the 2023 CAPE/Janet Yang Productions Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge and filmed it in Delhi, India. Shruti’s previous short film, ESPERANZA, has played in over 20 film festivals around the world, winning Best Narrative Short at the Portland Film Festival, Best Student Short at the Ojai Film Festival, and Best Screenplay at Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival. Her first narrative short, BLOOD MOON, won the Audience Award at the South Asian Film Festival of America. In 2023, Shruti was chosen as a member of the Snarky Elephant Cohort.
Previously, Shruti worked as a video journalist for Gizmodo Media Group and produced, shot, and edited award-winning social issue-focused news content that garnered millions of views, including the popular “Racist History” series. As a freelance video producer-DP-editor, Shruti has created media for clients such as Food & Wine Magazine, NYLON, WIRED and many nonprofit organizations. She was the assistant to acclaimed director Mira Nair on her 2013 film The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and has worked on three award-winning documentaries in post-production. Shruti has also directed over a dozen music videos which have been featured on platforms such as Remezcla, Jezebel, 2DopeBoyz and MTV2.
Shruti has a BA from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from UCLA, where she received the Jack Nicholson Distinguished Student Director Award and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Film Production Fellowship. In 2023, Shruti was chosen as a member of the Snarky Elephant Cohort. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and is finishing her fourth short film, HOMEBODY.