Nana Ghana smiling in a gray blazer
Writer / Director / Actor

NanaGhana.

Stories that live between worlds.

Stories of identity, memory, resistance and the lives we make between worlds.

Selected work

Behind the camera.

Films directed by Nana Ghana.

Film still / poster to be added

LA Woman Rising

Documentary feature · 2019

A love letter to the real women of Los Angeles. Narrated and executive produced by Rosario Dawson.

Film still / poster to be added

You Are Always Right Here

Narrative feature

Written, directed, produced by and starring Nana Ghana.

Film still / poster to be added

Water Warrior

Short film · Cannes 2016

Nana Ghana’s directorial debut, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Film still / poster to be added

Electing

Short film · Best Director

Recipient of Best Director at the Oregon Short Film Festival.

THE PAST
IS YET
TO COME
In development · Narrative feature

The Past Is
Yet to Come

After her father’s death, a young West African woman seeks spiritual guidance and is drawn across time into an uprising aboard an eighteenth-century slave ship. Guided by Eshu, the Yoruba deity of crossroads, she encounters the ancestral resistance and cultural memory that continue to shape the African diaspora.

A speculative historical drama inspired by Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno.

Working title · Written and to be directed by Nana Ghana
On screen

Acting.

Selected credits

  • All’s Fair Television · Hulu
  • White Rabbit Film · Sundance 2018
  • Babylon Film
  • What/If Television
  • Mighty Oak Film
  • Lost Transmissions Film
  • Clowning Film

More about the work

Named an “One to Watch” talent by Entertainment Weekly and People for her performance in White Rabbit at Sundance 2018.

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Film Fatales profile ↗

Portrait of filmmaker Nana Ghana
The filmmaker

Between worlds.

Nana Ghana is a Ghanaian-born, Los Angeles-based writer, director and actor whose work spans narrative film, documentary and television. Her stories explore identity, displacement, resilience, womanhood and belonging.

Her documentary feature LA Woman Rising received a theatrical release, and her filmmaking moves between intimate character studies and ambitious explorations of culture and memory.