Today we’d like to introduce you to Anika Hussen.
Hi Anika, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Queens, NYC, truly a melting pot of stories and influences in every direction, and always glued to a screen or daydreaming scenes in my head. Whether it was memorizing Bollywood films with my cousins, deep-diving into Reddit theory threads after a new episode dropped in the cafeteria with my friends, or replaying shots that lingered like background music. Film was always in my blood.
However, like a lot of brown kids from immigrant families, filmmaking was never presented to me as a “real” career. The hustle mindset was strong, which meant stability first, creativity later. I was always on the fence with this ideology, delusively believing I could have both at the same time. But it wasn’t until one of my early internships at RYOT Films that my professional career plans clicked into place. I watched a VR documentary about a Bangladeshi woman who became the first from her country to climb all seven summits. The filmmaker’s iPhone zoomed in on her face as she waved her flag and realized this…this was the lane for me. I could combine immersive tech, social impact, and storytelling. I realized I couldn’t wait around for someone else to tell those stories forever.
This led me to my NYU days, where I studied immersive and empathetic filmmaking and learned to merge tech, art, and emotion. That same spirit carried me into the professional world from Hulu to Dolby to Marvel Studios, where I got to help build the future of entertainment. But somewhere along the way, being deep in the corporate side made me lose sight of my desire to tell my own stories. Meeting Nia Raasikh, my co-director, and Javier Padilla, my co-writer, on Girl Dinner, reignited that spark. Together, we’re telling a story about messy, loving, complicated women of color that moves beyond tropes and into truth. Now I’m balancing both my corporate career in the entertainment industry and making the kinds of stories I used to dream about seeing.
I plan to continue my independent directing journey with stories deeply rooted in my NYC upbringing, South Asian heritage, and a love for experimenting across genres, especially fantasy—think Dev Patel’s Monkey Man meets Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It honestly hasn’t been a smooth road. I’ve often felt like I started with less of a head start. Seeing so few people who look like me in film made it hard to even visualize the path. Growing up with desi immigrant parents who built everything from scratch instilled an incredible “work twice as hard” work ethic, but also created a clash between their scarcity mindset and my desire to take creative risks. It’s ironic, because immigrating to a whole new country is a risk in itself, so I know they understand risk, but I guess just very calculated ones with a clear aftermath plan. Pursuing my own creative path meant navigating a lot of tough conversations and advocating for myself.
I’ve had to dual-path constantly, including making my own resources and opportunities, balancing a corporate career in Hollywood, honing my craft, and carving out space to tell the stories I really care about. Every challenge has pushed me to be resourceful, intentional, and relentless about my creative vision.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m known as someone at the intersection of immersive technology and storytelling. My friends even called it my “brand” earlier at NYU. Whether working on projects with professors like Ken Perlin, who created Perlin Noise used in Tron, or experimenting with VR in the comp sci lab. I’ve always been drawn to blending technical innovation with emotional impact, bringing a “future-thinking” mindset to creative collaborators.
Professionally, I explored this on Dolby Laboratories’ R&D team, diving deep into the science of frame-by-frame HDR Dolby Vision to make the movie-going experience as immersive and close to the human eye as possible. Today, at Marvel Studios on the Trailer Finishing team, I bring that same mindset to the creative and business side, helping shape campaigns for films/shows like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Moon Knight, and upcoming Vision Quest.
I’m proud of finding ways to push boundaries technologically, creatively, and narratively, which also includes carving space for underrepresented stories, especially South Asian voices. For me, it doesn’t have to exist yet for me to believe in it, and I’ll help construct it into existence.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I’ll admit, initially, I’m not naturally drawn to risk, but looking back, risks are the only reason I’m where I am today. My life has been a series of them: pursuing a creative film career as a South Asian girl in spaces where no one I grew up with had gone, crafting a brand-new educational path at the intersection of film and tech, leaving New York to move to Los Angeles alone during COVID, and navigating a brand-new city with no connections while supporting myself.
Even now, I take risks every day, including putting my focus on independent projects like Girl Dinner, without knowing what the return will be, or carving paths for stories that are still underrepresented in the industry. There’s always that question: “Will people understand?” But ultimately, it comes down to hope, vision, and trust in myself to make it happen.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anika_hssn
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anikahussen
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/girldinner.short
