Sanaa Hamri was born in Tangier, Morocco.  She attended Sarah Lawrence College as a theatre student.  Sanaa taught herself to use an Avid editing machine back in 2000.  She never once took a filmmaking course.  She realized that she had a knack for putting images together to tell a story.  Sanaa began making videos and knocking on doors throughout the music industry.

Her big break came when video mogul Malik Sayeed saw one of her early productions and loved it.  He showed it to Mariah Carey who was just as impressed as Malik and hired Sanaa to direct her video!  She’s also directed videos for Jadakiss, Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Joss Stone, Sting, Common, Eric Benet, Amel Larrieux, and many many more.

Her first feature film Something New starring Sanaa Lathan was the first movie to be produced, directed, written and starred by women of color.  The film gave people a lot to talk about since the storyline was about an African-American woman falling in love with a caucasian man.  Sanaa was nominated for two NAACP awards this year for Outstanding Director of a Feature Film for Something New and Outstanding Music Video for Prince’s Black Sweat.

Sanaa has also directed episodes on the television shows Men in Trees and Desperate Housewives.  She recently wrapped up filming The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 which stars America Ferera.  The movie has an August 2008 release date.