Cherien Dabis

Director Bio - October 19, 2025

Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian American filmmaker and actress who has established herself as a creative force across a variety of mediums. Having helped forge a new genre of Arab American storytelling, she brings authenticity, complexity, and humanity to the stories she writes, directs, and performs, spotlighting underrepresented perspectives with humor and humanity.

Dabis got her start with her trailblazing debut feature “Amreeka,” which she wrote and directed. Exploring the immigrant journey of a Palestinian single mom, the film had its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival before going on to win the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics Prize in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. It won a dozen more international awards and was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, three Independent Spirit Awards including Best Picture, Best First Screenplay and Best Actress, and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. The film landed Dabis on Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” list that same year.

A true multi-hyphenate, Dabis made her acting debut when she starred opposite Bill Pullman and Alia Shawkat in her second feature film, 2013 Sundance opener “May in the Summer,” which she also wrote and directed, a dramedy about a Palestinian American writer who returns home to reconnect with her roots.

Dabis has also showcased her signature approach into television, executive producing and directing standout episodes of Golden Globe-winning “Ramy” for Hulu and guest starring in Netflix’s Gotham and Peabody award- winning “Mo.” In 2022, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series’ for the critically acclaimed and groundbreaking episode “The Boy From 6B” on Hulu’s hit show “Only Murders in the Building”, starring comedy legends Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. Variety hailed the dialogue-free episode of television told from the point of view of a deaf character as “the episode of the year” and “a tour de force of directorial achievement.” In addition to directing additional standout episodes in season two and three, Dabis’ television directorial credits also include episodes of Netflix’s “Ozark.” Additional television acting credits include Prime Video’s “Fallout” and Apple TV+’s “Extrapolations.”Dabis resides in New York City.

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Actor Bio - October 19, 2025

Primarily known as a critically acclaimed director of numerous award-winning films, Cherien Dabis made her acting debut opposite Bill Pullman, Hiam Abbass and Alia Shawkat in her own film, Sundance-opener “May in the Summer” (2013), which she wrote and directed. She followed it up with a leading role in “Villa Touma” (2014), a dark comedy from director Suha Arraf. The film premiered at the Toronto and Venice Film Festivals. More recently, Dabis has had guest starring roles in TV series such as “Extrapolations” with Maryl Streep, Edward Norton, Diane Lane and Sienna Miller, as well as in Netflix’s award-winning comedy “Mo” and Amazon Prime’s post-apocalyptic hit “Fallout.”

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