In this episode, we sit down with Amara Abbas, an American-Pakistani director and filmmaker based in Brooklyn. Born and raised in Chicago, Amara moved to California in 2016 to begin her career in creative advertising and art direction. She spent the bulk of her career as an in-house Art Director at Apple, where she crafted award-winning campaigns and films for iPhone, iOS, and iPad.

Her developing interest in filmmaking led to the debut of her first film, TWIN FLAME, in 2021, a short film exploring the visceral memories of a past flame that burned out as quickly as it was ignited. Shortly after, Amara signed with Iconoclast and new-land TV as a director - and was recently named a winner of the Young Guns 20 Award by The One Club For Creativity, honoring creative professionals 30 years and under. 

She is now developing her second short, UKHT (SISTER), an experimental narrative examining the cultural and religious identities of two 20-something Muslim-American women, and is continuing to take on projects in the commercial, music video, and short form arenas.

We hope you enjoy this episode of Culture Study. If you do, please share it with one other person who would enjoy it as well. You can also tag us on Instagram when you tune in @culturestudy.

• Follow Amara: @amarabbas


• Follow Umar: @u_issa


• This podcast was produced by David Njeku.


• Theme Music: Cruel Santino - Rapid Fire (instrumental)