Wanjiru M. Njendu

Wanjiru Njendu is an award-winning Kenyan-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2020). Her creative imagination earned her the nickname 'Magic' at a young age. Her African and American upbringing influences her approach as a writer and director for film and television enabling her to have a versatile voice in both African stories and Western stories. This versatility led to her being chosen as a fellow in the Producer's Guild of America Diversity workshop. Wanjiru's film credits include several award-winning short films which have played in over 80 film festivals.Her award-winning short film Boxed has been accepted into 60+ film festivals including Cucalorus, Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF), Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema (Winner: Mary Austin Award excellence in Screenwriting: Short film - Wanjiru Njendu), The Phoenix Film Festival - Australia ( Winner Best Short film), Papaya Rocks Film Festival - London (Winner Best Director & Best Cinematography), The Catalyst Film Festival - London (Winner - the Director's choice award for best short fiction film) among others. Boxed had qualified and was submitted FYC for the 2020 Academy awards for Best Short Film- Live Action.Her documentary film Safari ya Jamhuri: The Journey to freedom was used to provide evidence for a lawsuit against the British Government by the MAU MAU colonial war survivors from Kenya. Wanjiru has studio experience having worked for both Disney Studios in various areas and Universal Pictures' Creative Marketing.She was the shadowing director on the Netflix series "Daybreak" under Mark Tonderai. She recently directed a horror short film that was acquired by Fox Digital Studios. She is working on getting two feature films, Reghost, a post apocalyptic comedy-horror and Lionheart, a coming of age film set in 1995 Brooklyn, financed.::Representative