Lara Panah-Izadi is a French American writer and director of middle eastern descent. Her first play was selected for the Yale playwrights festival in 2014. She wrote and directed her first fiction short film in 2017 and that year was hired by Paramount TV studios in creative development to find ideas of IP to adapt into US and international TV shows. Her second short film inspired by the life of artist Niki de Saint Phalle won multiple awards at festivals in Europe and the US in 2021. Lara also learned her craft by working on the sets of major Hollywood directors including Barry Levinson, Quentin Tarantino and more recently David Fincher. Lara is currently developing two TV shows and a feature. She holds a BA degree in Mathematics and Philosophy and Theater Studies from Yale and graduated in 2020 from the prestigious Directing Workshop for Women+ program of the American Film Institute. She is now based in Europe and represented by Film Talents in France.