Zoya Akhtar

Her great-grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, a scholar of Islamic studies and theology, edited the first diwan of Mirza Ghalib on his request and later became a figure during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in his native Khairabad.

She is the great-granddaughter of Urdu poet Muztar Khairabadi and granddaughter of poet Jan Nisar Akhtar.

Akhtar grew up in an agnostic environment and along with her brother Farhan and father Javed, and does not believe in any religion.

Akhtar started her career as the co-director of a music video called Price of Bullets for a rock band called Pentagram.

Zoya Akhtar (born 14 October 1972) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema.

Born to Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, she completed a diploma in filmmaking from NYU and assisted directors Mira Nair, Tony Gerber and Dev Benegal, before becoming an independent writer and director.

She is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards.

She has worked as a casting director for films including the drama Split Wide Open (1999) and the ensemble coming-of-age comedy-drama Dil Chahta Hai (2001), and as an assistant director for her brother Farhan Akhtar's films Dil Chahta Hai and the coming-of-age war drama Lakshya (2004).

She then worked as an executive producer for her longtime friend and associate Reema Kagti's comedy-drama Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007), also produced by Excel Entertainment.

She made her directorial debut with the drama Luck by Chance (2009), and achieved her breakthrough with the ensemble buddy road comedy-drama Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), winning the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director for the former, and the Filmfare Award for Best Director for the latter.

Akhtar made her directorial debut with the drama Luck By Chance (2009), starring her brother Farhan and Konkona Sen Sharma in lead roles.

The film tells the story of a struggling actor who breaks into the industry.

It opened to widespread critical acclaim from critics, with high praise directed towards its novel concept, story, screenplay and dialogues; however, the film had an underwhelming performance at the box-office.

It earned Akhtar the inaugural Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director, tying for the award with Ayan Mukerji for Wake Up Sid.

In 2011, she achieved her breakthrough with the coming-of-age comedy-drama Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which starred an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin in lead roles.

The film opened to widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its novel concept, storyline and setting.

It emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹1.53 billion (US$19 million) worldwide, ranking as the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara earned Akhtar her first Filmfare Award for Best Director.

She followed it up with co-writing the psychological crime thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012) alongside Reema Kagti, and directing Sheila Ki Jawaani, a segment of the anthology film Bombay Talkies (2013).

The following year, she and Kagti co-wrote the psychological crime thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012), starring an ensemble cast of Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukerji, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao and Shernaz Patel in lead roles.

The film received highly positive reviews upon release and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office.

In 2013, Akhtar teamed up with Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar for the anthology film Bombay Talkies.

It was made as a celebration of 100 years of Indian cinema.

Her segment titled Sheila Ki Jawaani, told the story of a 12-year-old child who idolised Hindi film actress Katrina Kaif and aspires to be a Bollywood dancer, earned her positive reviews from critics.

However, the film emerged as a commercial failure at the box-office.

Akhtar, along with Reema Kagti, founded Tiger Baby Films, a film and web studio in October 2015.

Akhtar then went on to direct the ensemble family comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), segments in the anthology films Lust Stories (2018) and Ghost Stories (2020), and the musical drama Gully Boy (2019), winning her second Filmfare Award for Best Director for the latter, thus becoming the only female director to have won the award twice.

Akhtar next directed the ensemble family comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), which told the story of a dysfunctional Punjabi family.

The film starred an ensemble cast, with Anil Kapoor as an egotistical industrialist, Shefali Shah as his bitter socialite-wife, and Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh as their children.

The film also featured Anushka Sharma and Farhan Akhtar as love interests of Singh and Chopra.

The film opened to positive reviews from critics, and emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹1.44 billion (US$18 million) worldwide, ranking as the ninth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.

The same year, Akhtar, along with Reema Kagti, founded Tiger Baby Films, an Indian film production company.

She ventured into the OTT space with the romantic comedy-drama series Made in Heaven (2019–present) and the crime thriller series Dahaad (2023–present).

In 2023, she helmed the live-action feature film adaptation of The Archies for Netflix.

She is also a board member of Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI).

Akhtar was born to poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and screenwriter Honey Irani.

Akhtar's stepmother is actress Shabana Azmi.

Her younger brother, Farhan Akhtar, is an actor and director.

She attended Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Xavier's College, both from Mumbai.

Later, she joined the New York University Tisch School of the Arts to learn film production.