Daresha Kyi is a current Soros Equality Fellow who uses film as a powerful tool for personal, political and social transformation and writes, produces, and directs documentary and narrative films and television in Spanish and English.
A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Film & TV, she used her award-winning student film, The Thinnest Line, to raise funding her second short narrative. Land Where My Fathers Died, which she wrote, produced, directed and co-starred in with Isaiah Washington in his screen debut, earned her a fellowship from TriStar Pictures to attend the Directors Program at The American Film Institute (AFI).
Her most recent film, Mama Bears premiered at SXSW 2022 and will premiere on PBS’ Independent Lens on June 20, 2023. In 2018 she directed a short film about transgender rights for the ACLU that has garnered over 5 million YouTube views, was screened at SXSW, and won two Webby Awards and an Emmy. In 2017 she co-directed and co-produced the feature-length documentary, Chavela, which was nominated for the Teddy award and won the 2nd place Panorama Audience Award at the 2017 Berlinale, as well as Best Documentary and Audience Awards at Outfest and the San Francisco LGBTQ Film Festival among others. Chavela secured theatrical distribution domestically and internationally and was screened on 160 screens in 42 countries.
Daresha has also produced Dispatches from Cleveland for Aubin Pictures, Kristina Wong’s How NOT to Pick Up Asian Women, Emmy-winning writer Kevin Avery’s satirical take on The Wiz called The Whizz as well as his hilarious comedy, Thugs The Musical and a short documentaryabout violence against lesbians called Just Because of Who We Are.
In addition to her film work, Daresha has produced award-winning television for WE, AMC, Oxygen, E!, Telemundo, Bravo, and FUSE, to name a few.
Daresha was a member of the Film Independent, Firelight Media Documentary Lab, Chicken & Egg Eggcelerator, Creative Capital and A Blade Of Grass fellowships. Her films have received funding from NEA, IDA, NBPC, NYSCA, NYFA, Frameline, Jerome, and the Women in Film Finishing Fund, among others.
