Niva Dorell is a screenwriter, director, and producer. The youngest child of an African American father and Israeli mother, Niva’s exposure to different cultures and experience with loss at a young age helped shape her voice as a writer and filmmaker. Most of her work touches on some aspect of love, loss, and resilience.

Niva's career began when Robert Zemeckis and the late John Singleton chose to mentor her graduate thesis film KINGS at the University of Southern California. KINGS went on to win Showtime's Black Filmmaker's Grant, screened and won awards at dozens of film festivals, including Slamdance and the Pan African Film Festival, and is one of the shorts featured on the DVD compilation Afrocentricity - Vol 1 (available on Amazon). Niva second film MILK AND HONEY premiered on Showtime, screened in competition at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, and later aired on BET.

Other projects Niva has directed include the television movie WHAT ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS: WEEKEND GET-AWAY (starring Keisha Knight Pulliam, Kym Whitley, and Academy-award winner Louis Gossett Jr.), the feature documentary SKID ROW (featuring Pras Michel of The Fugees), and several music videos, PSAs, short documentaries, and theater productions. In addition to Mr. Gossett, she has directed Harry Lennix, Keith David, Lorraine Toussaint, Loretta Devine, Richard Brooks, and many others. Niva’s writing has been championed by mentors such as David Mamet, Rodrigo Garcia, and Scott Frank, and supported by residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Millay Arts, and Cill Rialaig in Ireland.

Niva’s most recent directorial effort is the short film TRAVELING MERCIES, written by Madison Trice and produced by Social Cinema Foundation. She will direct her fourth short film THE LOTTO LINE in summer of 2024, followed by her first narrative feature film, LIVING LIVING, an emotionally powerful nonlinear love story based on her own experience.

Niva received an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California School of Cinema and B.A. from Temple University. An Angeleno for 20 years, Niva now lives in New York City and divides her time between there, the Hudson Valley, and Los Angeles. Niva writes about life as a creative on her Substack A Writer's Think Tank.