Nirav Bhakta is an award winning Director/Actor/Writer. While growing up as an undocumented immigrant in motels, Nirav utilized the restraints of his environment and geographical boundaries to create with what he had. Nirav's background in story telling extends from architecture to the North Indian classical dance form of Kathak. Due to the lack of authentic roles and experiences as an actor, Nirav began creating zero budget short films focusing on the immigrant experience, including a portrait documentary short revolving around an immigrant sex worker who was human trafficked by a drug cartel. In 2019, Nirav and his co-director Gayatri Bajpai were announced as the winners of the HBO Visionaries Short Film Competition for their film HALWA, which is now streaming on HBO. Halwa became the first South Asian short form content on HBO. Nirav currently is in the Academy sponsored Armed With A Camera Fellowship by Visual Communications, as well as the director of the the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge film 'The Last Of The Stars'.