Los Angeles • East Bay Area
Samia Zaidi (she/they) is a Pakistani-American director/cinematographer based between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. She works across narrative film, commercial, and experimental media, with a focus on character-driven storytelling and visually intentional worlds.
Her directing practice is grounded in intimacy, emotional tension, and specificity. Samia is drawn to stories that explore identity, power, and desire, often centering moments of quiet rupture and internal conflict. Her work balances a strong visual point of view with grounded performances, creating space for both restraint and intensity.
In the commercial and music video space, Samia has contributed to creative development and pitch work for Fortune 500 companies, luxury brands, and large-scale artist projects. This experience informs her understanding of scale, collaboration, and high-stakes storytelling, while her directing and cinematography practice remains rooted in independent, author-driven work.
Alongside her work as a director, Samia brings a deep understanding of production and post-production, having collaborated on creative development and production workflows for national commercial campaigns with Academy Award and Emmy winning teams. Her background spans cinematography, documentary and narrative work, music video direction, color, design, and post production, informing a holistic and highly intentional approach to storytelling from concept through final delivery.
Samia approaches directing with both rigor and care, protecting the emotional core of each project while guiding the creative process with clarity, structure, and collaboration.