Amirah Adem is a director and producer from Stone Mountain, Georgia, and a first-generation South African and Ethiopian American. She holds an MFA in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California and a BA in Media Studies from Pomona College, with a full scholarship as a QuestBridge Scholar.

Her debut short, Convertible, premiered at the Directors Guild of America Theater and won a Gold Telly for Best Social Impact Award. She directed a Coca-Cola commercial through the Refreshing Films Program as one of four finalists selected from over 1,000 applicants. The commercial won two of three awards in the program and now screens in Cinemark theaters nationwide. Her USC thesis film, John (2025), is on the festival circuit and was a finalist in the 2024 Annapolis Film Festival Short Film Pitch Competition. She has worked at Peabody Awards, Tyler Perry Studios, and 2.0 Entertainment.

Her films center Black leads in untold stories across diverse genre lenses. Amirah’s earlier advocacy work, through the Strauss Foundation and Davis Projects for Peace, advanced global initiatives against Female Genital Mutilation. She strives to represent multicultural stories revealing the shared humanity within them.