Rohi Mirza Pandya (she/her)
Creative Producer
Rohi Mirza Pandya is an award-winning Creative Producer in film, television, and theater, Co-founder of Box Office Guru Media, Inc., a multicultural marketing agency and serves as Creative Producer, board member and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging consultant (DEIB) for Desipina Productions.
Rohi has been in the entertainment industry for over twenty years and strongly believes that representation and empowerment matter—in all aspects of production. Her Pakistani-Filipina background has influenced her perspective on the world and is reflected not only in her produced works, but also in her joy in seeing wide, accurate representation on the stage and screen.
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Film/TV producing credits include: award-winning short film MODERN DAY ARRANGED MARRIAGE (NBC ShortCuts audience award; “Just for Laughs” festival; LOGO/MTV distribution); FILLUM STAR: THE PETER PATEL STORY (narrative feature – India release); and HIDING DIVYA (limited North American release) and the award-winning TV series “Finding My America”. Rohi was selected to be a part of the Sundance Producers Lab in 2003 and has served on the 2022 Film selection committee for 1497, a feature film lab for South Asian writers. She is putting together a film media fund under the name Catalyst Media Productions.
As co-founder of Box Office Guru Media Inc., a media consulting firm specializing in Indian films releasing in the North American market, she has created and executed marketing campaigns targeting the South Asian American audience for over 400+ films over the past twenty years including Slumdog Millionaire, The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding, Bend It Like Beckham, Lion, Yesterday, plus the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films and the Harold & Kumar films. Clients include Disney, Universal, Amazon, Bleecker Street, Fox Searchlight, Paramount, Sony and Focus and the company offers services in publicity, promotions, marketing and advertising.
As Creative Producer, board member and DEIB consultant for Desipina, Rohi has worked with many theater companies such as The Public, The New Group, The Play Company, Ma-Yi Theater,, La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre and The Old Globe. Cultural Consulting Producer credits include: short films NOW AND NEVER and ACCORDIAN TO ME.
She is particularly proud of her volunteer work championing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the New York City public school system and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Children’s Theater, helping to shape their Equity, Inclusion and Belonging initiatives.
She received her MBA in Marketing from the University of Colorado and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Certification from Cornell University.
Rehana Lew Mirza (she/her)
Writer
Rehana Lew Mirza’s plays include: Hatefuck (Colt Coeur/WP); A People’s Guide to History in the Time of Here and Now (Primary Stages Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation's Women Playwrights Commission; AADA workshop production); Soldier X (Ma-Yi; Brooklyn College; NYSCA/Lark commission); Tomorrow, Inshallah (Living Room Theater, Kansas City; Storyworks/HuffPost commission); Neighborhood Watch (NNPN/InterAct commission) and Barriers (Desipina, Asian American Theater Company). Click here for longer list of works.
With her husband Mike Lew, she was awarded the 2020 Kleban for most promising librettist. They also share a Mellon Foundation National Playwright residency administered in partnership with Howlround at
Ma-Yi Theater, as well as a commission at La Jolla Playhouse for The Colonialism Project after previously being their 2018 artists-in-residence.
They’ve co-written the book, in partnership with Sam Willmott, to the musical Bhangin’ It (2019 Richard Rodgers Award; upcoming productions at La Jolla Playhouse and McCarter Theater; previously developed at The Orchard Project, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and their 3R program, Goodspeed, and Project Springboard.)
She founded the award-winning South Asian theater and film company, Desipina & Co, alongside her sister Rohi Mirza Pandya in 2001, where together they produced the popular Seven.11 series (seven, 11-minute plays all set in a convenience store.) Her short film MODERN DAY ARRANGED MARRIAGE won the NBC ShortCuts audience award, and screened at “Just for Laughs” in Montreal before being acquired by LOGO/MTV. Her feature film, HIDING DIVYA, had a limited North American release and toured to colleges through a grant from the Asian Women's Giving Circle.
Additional honors: NYFA Fellow, Colt Coeur Company member, HBO Access Fellow, Lilly Award (Stacey Mindich “Go Write A Play”), Tofte Lake Emerging Writers Residency, E.S.T. Sloan commission, a John Golden Award, Leopold Schepp fellowship, Ma-Yi Writers Lab Member and Co-Director (2006-2016), Primary Stages Dorothy Strelsin Writers Group Member (2014-2017) and a TCG/New Georges Fellowship. MFA: Columbia University; BFA: NYU Tisch.