Born in Dallas, Talibah Newman Ometu first came to New York City as a freshman attending Columbia University. After receiving her bachelor’s in Film and Creative Writing, Talibah braved New York City and landed several internships and production jobs in her field with companies such as Ted Hope’s This is That Production Company, Jonathan Demme’s Clinica Estetico, and Malcolm Lee’s Blackmaled Productions.
Talibah then pursued her Master’s in directing at Columbia University’s MFA program. As an M.F.A. student, Talibah sought to tell stories about familial relationships, precocious children, single-character journeys into recreating identity, obstructing prejudice, and the complicated mosaic of spirituality and faith.
Talibah is a Director’s Guild of America winner in the African American Category for her film Busted on Brigham Lane, which was licensed to HBO for exhibition. HBO also licensed Talibah’s Sweet Honey Chile’, which also won a Princess Grace Award, and first place at the Martha’s Vineyard Short Film Award Competition. These films were screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Bahamas International Film Festival, Urban World Film Festival, The Chicago Black Harvest Film Festival, The Palm Springs LGBT Film Festival, The American Black Film Festival, The Underground Film Festival in Minneapolis, The Pan African Film Festival, Rooftop Film Festival, and the Cannes Film Festival–among others.
Talibah created a comedic web series titled "Famous Farrah" on Youtube. She has served on the development team for Complex Networks and produced the film and television podcast, “Watch Less.”
Talibah’s film about gentrification in Bed-Stuy , Bodega, premiered at the Pan- African film festival and has had a successful run. Collaboratively, Talibah also completed a virtual reality series centered around the 1921 massacre of Greenwood Avenue or Black Wall Street, which was distributed through educational institutions and museums. Some of her work, including a comedic web series titled First Dates, can be viewed on the app and platform called [BlackOak.tv]. In addition, Talibah directed a project on protecting Black Trans Women, which won a GLAAD award, and has also directed Netflix’s first inclusion report film.
Diligently continuing to expand her craft, Talibah is currently in the development phase for her debut narrative feature film and is penning a feature about her mother, Isis Brantley’s hair braiding legal battle and fight for justice with the State of Texas.
Talibah is a savant when it comes to marrying authenticity with branded content. She has pitched concepts for seven-figure RFP’s, packaged and directed various branded content pieces for Buzzfeed and Complex Networks with various brands including Target, Macy’s, Gillette, Sephora, Kingsford, Diablo, Frito Lay/Cheetos, General Mills/Totinos, Oikos, Espolon, Ciroc, and Absolut. She resides in New York City and is also the proud mother of three children.
