London-based Mariayah Kaderbhai studied French and Cinema at Queen Mary’s College, University of London and Paris. She began her career at the BFI and then joined BAFTA, where she is Head of Programmes, overseeing industry events and initiatives across film, television and games industries. She works across  events, research and policy to ensure the screen industries become more inclusive across all unrepresented groups on and off screen and reflect the society we live in. She has also worked on Al Jazeera's former flagship film show The Fabulous Picture Show' as a producer/journalist. 

Mariayah has interviewed cinema greats as Penelope Cruz, Jake Gyllenhaal, JJ Abrams, Jacques Audiard, Spike Lee, Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, Thomas Vinterberg, Daniel Kaluyya, Timothée Chalamet, Anthony Hopkins, Mira Nair, Stephen Frears, Nicole Kidman, Steve Carell and Riz Ahmed among many more. 

She has just completed her Masters Degree in Media and the Middle East at SOAS, University of London, focussing on the geopolitics of the Middle East, her thesis focussed on the representation of Muslims on TV in the UK BBC. Her research fed into USC Annenberg’s study of Muslim Representation in Film & Television. 

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