Keya Shirali is a filmmaker and a Junior Associate at Smarthouse Creative. She has experience across development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution at organizations like Women Make Movies, Storm City Films, Gigantic Pictures, Very Rare Productions, SeaLion Films, and more.

Her short films have been recognized by the Independent Shorts Awards, Indie Short Fest, IndieX Film Fest, Beyond the Curve International Film Festival, The Lonely Wolf International Film Festival, Luminous Frames, NewFilmmakers NY, The Great Film Club Open Mic Night: NYC, Millennium Film Workshop, Asian American Film Festival (AAFF), CUNY Asian American Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival, Korean Cultural Center New York, and the Korean American Film Festival New York, amongst others.

She holds an M.F.A. in Producing (Cinema Arts) from the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema within Brooklyn College, where she served as a Producer, Assistant Director, Script Supervisor, Associate Producer, and Director of Photography on over 10 short films.

Fun fact: She was a competitive National-level Sailor (Optimist boat) at age 14!