Monisha Dadlani is a South Asian American filmmaker from New York City, now based in Los Angeles. She gravitates toward grounded magical realism, coming-of-age stories, and all things romance.

She is a 2026 fellow with Women in Film, CAPE, and the Sony Pictures Animation × Black List Writers Program. With support from Antigravity Academy and the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, she is developing her debut feature as a director, The Fiddler, and is currently in post-production on her latest short film, It Had to Be You.

Her first short film, Condoms & Cherries, premiered at the Academy-qualifying Cleveland International Film Festival and served as the proof of concept for a half-hour comedy selected for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Impact accelerator before selling to Sony Pictures Television. She later developed multiple projects under a blind script deal with the studio.

As a screenwriter, her original feature The Boy Who Died was featured on Franklin Leonard's 2020 Black List, and her sci-fi romantic comedy The Marigold Paradox was selected for Tubi and The Black List's "To Be Commissioned" initiative. She's written for Netflix Feature Animation, Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television, Apple TV+, MRC, ACE Entertainment, and HitRecord.

As an actress, she has apprenticed with One Year Lease Theater Co. and has performed at LA’s Skylight Theater, New Collective, Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB), and Theatre 68. You can also hear her voice in the Nickelodeon animated series, "The Twisted Timeline of Sammy and Raj". 

A graduate of USC's School of Dramatic Arts, Prague Film School, UCB, and New York City's LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts (the "Fame" school), Monisha is also a member of Dan Lin's Rideback Rise Circle. Most importantly, her favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor is Phish Food.