Sasie Sealy is an award-winning writer/director known for her striking visuals and cheeky scripts. Her debut feature film Lucky Grandma premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and had Sasie listed by The New York Times as one of “9 Filmmakers Who Should Be on Your Radar,” with critics calling it “delightful” and “one-of-a-kind.” The film was released theatrically in 2020 to rave reviews and appeared on multiple “Best of 2020” lists, including from Indiewire, New York Magazine, and Refinery29, and was recently named one of “The 100 Best Asian-American Films of All Time.”
She first made her mark in the commercial world with her work in beauty and fashion, and has directed for clients such as Maybelline, Torrid, Matrix, Urban Decay, Tressemé, and Calvin Klein. Her shorts have screened all over the world and she has twice been awarded the short filmmaking prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, with New York Magazine calling her film The Elephant Garden “one of the most touching and poignant films we’ve seen this year.” A fellowship and new short with HBO in 2014 led to a chance to direct episodic television and her first DGA nomination in 2016. She would go on to direct Ivy and Julie, An American Girl Story, which was nominated for 4 Daytime Emmys and was the winner of a WGA award. Sasie was also recently named to the Alice Initiative list of Emerging Female Directors. Voted on by more than 50 female film executives, the annual list highlights twenty promising, up-and-coming women filmmakers.
Celebrated for her singular voice and ability to craft memorable performances, her work elevates the female experience in hilarious and often unexpected ways. She is currently developing the original series Sugarland, with Ilana Glazer, and she is attached to direct the film Paris for One, based on the book by Jojo Moyes, for Working Title and StudioCanal; Do This For Me with Imagine Entertainment; Tiger Mother, which Di Novi is producing at Amazon; Beauties with Rook’s Nest (The Witch) and Range Media; and The Wedding Heist at Amazon Studios, which she is also writing.
She loves high fashion grandmas, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and long walks on the beach.
