Meja Shoba

Meja Shoba is an award winning South African-American writer/director based in Johannesburg. Her love for film springs from a passion to tell diverse stories with cultural nuance. Her experiences living in South Africa and California influence her approach in exploring niche subcultures with highly cinematic visual style.

After working agency side in New York, Meja received her Masters in Fine Arts in Directing from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television in Los Angeles, CA.

Her films have traveled to numerous film festivals and museum art exhibitions in the US, Europe, and Africa. Her film, Dear Pearl was a 2015 Grand Prize recipient of the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) Student Award as well as an official selection of the New Orleans Film Festival and Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
During her time in Los Angeles, Meja directed in-house music videos and branded content for Black Eyed Peas musician, will.iam and his artist India Love.

Her fashion film, Boys of Soweto, travelled to numerous film festivals and showcases, including Durban International Film Festival, Berlin Fashion Film Festival, New York Fashion Film Festival, Frontal Film Festival, Africa in Motion, Bokeh International Fashion Film Festival, and as a director guest speaker feature with CinemAfrica Film Festival in Sweden and LACMA’s Young Director’s Night.

In addition to narrative films, Meja also directs commercial adverts and branded content for brands. She is represented by Ola! Films in Johannesburg.