Nisha Ganatra

Nisha Ganatra is a film director, film producer, screenwriter and actress of Indian ancestry. She is best known for her films Chutney Popcorn (1999) and Cosmopolitan (2003), and for being a consulting producer on, and directing three episodes of, the first season of the Golden Globe–winning TV series Transparent. Ganatra graduated from the New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts where she studied with Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee. She is openly lesbian. Description above from the Wikipedia article Nisha Ganatra, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Works

Freakier Friday

Years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis, Anna now has a daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover lightning might indeed strike twice.

Release Date: 2025-08-06

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Deli Boys
6.9

Deli Boys

When their convenience store-magnate father suddenly dies, a pair of pampered Pakistani American brothers lose everything and are forced to reckon with their Baba’s secret life of crime as they attempt to take up his mantle in the underworld.

Release Date: 2025-03-06

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 10

Vote Count: 17

Clean Slate
6.8

Clean Slate

Harry is an old-school car wash owner in Alabama who has a lot of soul searching to do when the child he once called "son" returns after 17 years as a proud trans woman named Desiree. Her homecoming brings together a hilarious cast of friends, coworkers, and love interests as Desiree and Harry try to get it right the second time around.

Release Date: 2025-02-06

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 16

Welcome to Chippendales
6.5

Welcome to Chippendales

The outrageous story of Somen “Steve” Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who became the unlikely founder of the world’s greatest male-stripping empire—and let nothing stand in his way in the process.

Release Date: 2022-11-22

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 52

And Just Like That…
7.4

And Just Like That…

This new chapter of “Sex and the City” follows Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte as they navigate the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their 30s to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s.

Release Date: 2021-12-09

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 497

#WombStories

Our #wombstories​ are never simple. But all of them – the weird and the wonderful; the happy and the sad – need to be heard.

Release Date: 2020-09-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

7.0

The High Note

Set in the dazzling world of the LA music scene comes the story of Grace Davis, a superstar whose talent, and ego, have reached unbelievable heights. Maggie is Grace’s overworked personal assistant who’s stuck running errands, but still aspires to her childhood dream of becoming a music producer. When Grace’s manager presents her with a choice that could alter the course of her career, Maggie and Grace come up with a plan that could change their lives forever.

Release Date: 2020-06-10

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 455

Dollface
7.1

Dollface

After being dumped by her longtime boyfriend, a young woman must deal with her own imagination in order to literally and metaphorically re-enter the world of women, and rekindle the female friendships she left behind.

Release Date: 2019-11-15

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 89

6.4

Late Night

A legendary late-night talk show host's world is turned upside down when she hires her only female staff writer. Originally intended to smooth over diversity concerns, her decision has unexpectedly hilarious consequences as the two women separated by culture and generation are united by their love of a biting punchline.

Release Date: 2019-01-25

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 814

Black Monday
7.0

Black Monday

Travel back to October 19, 1987 – aka Black Monday, the worst stock market crash in Wall Street history – this is the story of how a group of outsiders took on the blue-blood, old-boys club of Wall Street and ended up crashing the world’s largest financial system, a Lamborghini limousine, Don Henley’s birthday party and the glass ceiling.

Release Date: 2019-01-20

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 69

6.3

Half the Picture

At a pivotal moment for gender equality in Hollywood, successful women directors talk about their art, lives and careers.

Release Date: 2018-01-23

Character: Self

Vote Count: 13

Future Man
7.2

Future Man

Josh Futturman, a janitor by day/world-ranked gamer by night, is tasked with preventing the extinction of humanity after mysterious visitors from the future proclaim him the key to defeating the imminent super-race invasion.

Release Date: 2017-11-14

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 513

Dear White People
6.1

Dear White People

At a predominantly white Ivy League college, a diverse group of students navigate various forms of racial and other types of discrimination.

Release Date: 2017-04-28

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 175

Great News
6.6

Great News

A New Jersey mom puts her relationship with her daughter to the test when she lands an internship at the same TV station where her daughter works.

Release Date: 2017-04-25

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 79

Better Things
7.3

Better Things

Sam Fox is a single, working actor with no filter trying to raise her three daughters – Max, Frankie and Duke – in Los Angeles. She is mom, dad, referee and the cops.

Release Date: 2016-09-08

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 4

Vote Count: 181

6.5

Center Stage: On Pointe

Jonathan Reeves is tasked with infusing more contemporary styles and modernism into the American Ballet Academy, and enlists his top choreographers Charlie, Cooper and Tommy to recruit dancers to compete at a camp where the winners will be selected to join the Academy. Bella Parker, who has always lived in the shadow of her hugely successful sister Kate, finally gets her chance to step into the limelight as one of the dancers recruited for the camp.

Release Date: 2016-06-25

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 78

Mr. Robot
8.2

Mr. Robot

A contemporary and culturally resonant drama about a young programmer, Elliot, who suffers from a debilitating anti-social disorder and decides that he can only connect to people by hacking them. He wields his skills as a weapon to protect the people that he cares about. Elliot will find himself in the intersection between a cybersecurity firm he works for and the underworld organizations that are recruiting him to bring down corporate America.

Release Date: 2015-06-24

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 4827

The Last Man on Earth
6.9

The Last Man on Earth

The year is 2022, and after an unlikely event, only one man is left on earth: Phil Miller, who used to be just an average guy who loved his family and hated his job at the bank. Now, in his RV, Phil searches the country for other survivors.

Release Date: 2015-03-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 888

Transparent
6.4

Transparent

An LA family with serious boundary issues have their past and future unravel when a dramatic admission causes everyone's secrets to spill out.

Release Date: 2014-09-26

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 3

Vote Count: 157

5.0

FUTURESTATES: Code Academy

In the future, the gender disparity gap was addressed with a radical idea: keep boys and girls physically separate until the age of eighteen. In this society, The Equal Futures Academy for Girls and the Equal Futures Academy for Boys were formed to re-educate the two genders without the inherent biases of society. The Equal Futures Academy propels more girls into the arena of captains of technology than any other school in the world. Frankie, Libby and Sheridan of the Girls Who Code are a premiere coterie of students with brains, beauty and binary bravado. The expert hackers have found a way to interact with the boys from their sister school and trouble ensues. Code Academy is a peek into the inner world of adolescence, gender identity formation and the role of cyber space in this tumultuous time of growth.

Release Date: 2014-04-06

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 5

5.7

Pete's Christmas

An overlooked middle child finds himself in the unexpected spotlight when he realizes his family's terrible Christmas day keeps repeating. As the only one experiencing the day over and over, he decides to use his unique gift to give the holidays a makeover and his family a Christmas they will never forget.

Release Date: 2013-11-16

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 179

5.6

The Hunters

Imagine if all mythical artifacts, from Jason's Golden Fleece to Cinderella's glass slippers, were real. Well, they are -- and for centuries, a secret society called the Hunters has been sworn to protect them from an evil force called the Krugen.

Release Date: 2013-10-25

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 344

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
8.2

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

A single-camera ensemble comedy following the lives of an eclectic group of detectives in a New York precinct, including one slacker who is forced to shape up when he gets a new boss.

Release Date: 2013-09-17

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 3

Vote Count: 3555

The Mindy Project
6.3

The Mindy Project

Obstetrician/gynecologist Mindy Lahiri tries to balance her personal and professional life, surrounded by quirky co-workers in a small medical practice in New York City.

Release Date: 2012-09-25

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 161

Shameless
8.2

Shameless

Chicagoan Frank Gallagher is the proud single dad of six smart, industrious, independent kids, who without him would be... perhaps better off. When Frank's not at the bar spending what little money they have, he's passed out on the floor. But the kids have found ways to grow up in spite of him. They may not be like any family you know, but they make no apologies for being exactly who they are.

Release Date: 2011-01-09

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 2892

Haven
7.5

Haven

FBI agent Audrey Parker arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine to solve a murder and soon discovers the town's many secrets—which also hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of her lost past.

Release Date: 2010-07-09

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 465

4.8

Will You Merry Me?

During Christmas and Hanukkah, Rebecca and Hank must go through the anxiety-filled process of meeting the in-laws while immersed in their future family holiday traditions.

Release Date: 2008-12-13

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 20

6.1

The Cheetah Girls: One World

Chanel, Dorinda, and Aqua are off to India to star in a Bollywood movie. But when they discover that they will have to compete against each other to get the role in the movie, will the Cheetahs break up again?

Release Date: 2008-08-22

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 333

4.5

Bam Bam and Celeste

Celeste and Bam Bam escape their Midwest hometown for New York, and take on their high-school nemeses - the dictators of the world-famous Salon Mirage - while discovering that true beauty lies within.

Release Date: 2005-09-13

Character: Linda

Vote Count: 8

4.8

Cake

A travel writer improves her love life when she becomes an editor for her father's wedding magazine.

Release Date: 2005-05-12

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 121

6.0

Fast Food High

Fast Food High tells the story of Emma Redding, a young fast food restaurant employee who musters her inner Erin Brockovich and tries to start a union. When new management takes over the local fast food restaurant, favoritism, unstable hours and sexual harassment come with it. Eager to do something about it, Emma risks losing her job, her boyfriend, and her status with the "in" crowd as she squares off against big business in the greatest challenge of her young life.

Release Date: 2003-02-25

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 3

6.0

Cosmopolitan

A single bachelor, an oddly attractive neighbor and a popular women's magazine are the ingredients of this delicious romance that pays homage to classic Bollywood cinema while spinning a unique modern love story.

Release Date: 2003-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

Bliss
5.2

Bliss

Bliss is a Canadian produced, half hour dramatic television series, produced by Montreal-based Galafilm and Toronto-based Back Alley Films, an anthology of women's erotica. The series ran from 2002 to 2004. The format of the show—short, sensual vignettes adapted for television—aired on Oxygen in the United States and Showcase, TMN and Movie Central in Canada. The series is distributed by Oasis International in Toronto.

Release Date: 2002-03-21

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 4

5.2

Chutney Popcorn

Reena is a young Indian American lesbian who lives and works in New York. Her sister Sarita, who is happily married, discovers that she is infertile. Reena offers to be a surrogate mother for her sister's baby, hoping to improve her relationship with their mother, who disapproves of Reena's sexual orientation. Reena has second thoughts when her girlfriend Lisa feels left out.

Release Date: 2001-01-11

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character: Reena

Vote Count: 20

4.5

Fairy Tale

Gay man brings his lover to meet his homophobic parents.

Release Date: 1998-01-01

Department: Camera

Job: Director of Photography

Vote Count: 6

Untitled Boy Band Pic

A feature about an Indian boy band.

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Junky Punky Girlz

A short, humorous film! One afternoon in the life of a young woman from the East Village in New York City... With the help of two of her friends, she goes to get her nose pierced. This simple act leads her to examine her feelings regarding her traditional Indian Heritage -- what this heritage means to her, when her daily life is immersed in things American... Mix in a shopkeeper who only speaks Hindi, her concerned Indian mother, a couple of nose-rings, a filet-o-fish -- and you get -- Junky Punky Girlz!

Department: Directing

Job: Director

10.0

The Acting Class

A comedy about an exceptionally dysfunctional acting class. Playing unsuspecting college students, Liz and Jill set off to find the most influential acting teacher of the decade and soon discover a heralded guru named Kenneth LaPoubelle. After a visit to Ken's class and a series of interviews with his present and former students, they realize that Ken's reputation might exceed his talent.

Release Date: 2000-04-29

Character: Exotic Dancer

Vote Count: 1

Unaccustomed Earth

Unaccustomed Earth

An epic and culturally vibrant drama about a tight-knit Indian American community navigating love, desire, and belonging. Rich with nuance, passion, and unforgettable characters, Unaccustomed Earth invites you into the elite and insular Indian-American community of Cambridge, MA. When a star-crossed romance between a devoted wife and her long-lost love comes to light, a scandalous affair is born, and new battle lines are drawn in this intensely interconnected immigrant community.

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Episode Count: 1

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