| Meera Menon | |
| Birth Place: | Park Ridge, NJ |
| Years Active: | 2009–present |
| Relatives: | Vijayan Menon (film producer) |
Meera Menon is an Indian–American director, writer, and editor. Her feature directorial debut, Farah Goes Bang,[1] screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 and was awarded the inaugural Nora Ephron Prize by Tribeca and Vogue.[2] She currently resides in Los Angeles.[3]
Menon‘s family is from Kerala, India. Menon cited her father Vijayan, a film producer and a founder of Tara Arts, an English cultural ambassador for South India that showcases musicals and films,[3] as her earliest inspiration for filmmaking, using his camera to shoot films at a young age with her next-door neighbour.[4] Menon says while her parents encouraged her to pursue the arts, her father advised her to look at it as a hobby.[4]
Because of this way of thinking about film, Menon did not seriously consider filmmaking as a career until she attended Columbia University, and took classes that were taught by professional filmmakers.[4] Menon received a BA in English and Art History from Columbia, but while she was there, she began directing films and discovered a passion for the craft.[4] She went on to receive an MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.[3]
In 2009, Menon wrote and directed the short film Mark in Argentina, a story about a governor searching for his mistress in Argentina. However, it wasn't until Menon released her feature-length debut that she started to get a great deal of recognition from the media.
Menon's first full-length feature film, Farah Goes Bang, was described by Jennifer Mills as one that, "explores many genres: the road movie, the sexual coming of age movie, the political film, the buddy movie."[5] Menon co-wrote the film with Laura Goode, who also acted as a producer.[5] Not only did Menon win the Nora Ephron Prize for Farah Goes Bang, but the film also won awards at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and CAAMFest.[6] [7]
In 2015, Menon directed the female-driven Wall Street drama Equity.[8] The film premiered in Competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.[9]
In 2016, Menon also wrote and directed the short film The Press Conference for Refinery29's ShatterBox Anthology, a series of 12 shorts written and directed by women. The short premiered on Refinery29's website on 23 September 2016.[10]
She had also worked as a director on the TV series The Magicians for an episode in the third, and two in the fourth season.
According to Syfy in 2022, Menon will direct a film based on Naomi Novik's best-selling YA fantasy A Deadly Education, in development by Mandeville Films as part of a series bought by Universal Hollywood.[11]
| Year | Title | width=65 | Directors | width=65 | Writers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Mark in Argentina | |||||
| 2013 | Farah Goes Bang |
| ||||
| 2016 | Equity | |||||
| The Press Conference |
TV series
| Year | Title | Directors | Writers | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Blood Drive | 2 episodes | |||
| Fear the Walking Dead | episode: "This Land Is Your Land" | ||||
| 2018 | Titans | episode: "Together" | |||
| GLOW | episode: "The Good Twin" | ||||
| The Man in the High Castle | episode: "History Ends" | ||||
| The Magicians | 4 episodes | ||||
| 2019 | The Punisher | episode: "The Abyss" | |||
| The Walking Dead | episode: "Bounty" | ||||
| The Terror: Infamy | episode: "My Perfect World" | ||||
| You | episode: "Farewell, My Bunny" | ||||
| Outlander | 2 episodes | ||||
| 2020 | Dirty John | episode: "The Turtle and the Alligator" | |||
| 2021 | For All Mankind | 2 episodes | |||
| 2022 | Ms. Marvel | 2 episodes | |||
| 2022 | Westworld (Season 4) | episode: "Metanoia" |