Cherien Dabis is a critically acclaimed and award-winning Palestinian American film and television director, writer, and actress, renowned for her outstanding work in the industry. Born in the United States and raised in Ohio and Jordan, Dabis pursued her passion for film at Columbia University's School of the Arts.
Dabis recently received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for her work on the critically acclaimed and groundbreaking episode "The Boy From 6B" on Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building", starring comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short alongside Selena Gomez. This episode, told from the perspective of a deaf character and featuring only one line of spoken dialogue, relied on American Sign Language (ASL),compelling visuals, and the soundtrack to tell the story. In addition to her directing work on season 1, Dabis directed two episodes of season 2.
Dabis' career began with her debut feature film Amreeka, which she wrote and directed. The film premiered at Sundance in 2009 and went on to win the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics Prize in the Director's Fortnight at Cannes. It won a dozen more international awards and was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, three Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture, and named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. The film's success landed Dabis on Variety's "Ten Directors to Watch" list that same year. Moreover, Amreeka broke records in its theatrical release by becoming the most-screened Arab-directed film in US-cinema history.
Dabis continued to push boundaries with her second feature film May in the Summer, in which she also stars alongside Bill Pullman, Hiam Abbass, and Alia Shawkat. The film opened the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and had its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival before being released worldwide. It is currently available to stream on Amazon.
As a multi-hyphenate, Dabis is recognized for her exceptional episodic directing work on Emmy award-winning television shows such as Hulu's "Ramy" and Netflix's "Ozark", as well as her writing and acting for television. Her past writing credits include "Empire", "Quantico", and "The L Word", and in the world of acting, she recently wrapped on Scott Z. Burns' upcoming Apple TV+ anthology series "Extrapolations". Next, she will appear as a recurring guest star on "Mo", comedian Mo Amer's new half-hour comedy for Netflix.
