DIRECTOR BIO

Tamika is a Virginia native who graduated from The American University with a BA in Performing Arts after switching her major from Journalism. There she directed her first play for the stage, Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka’s “The Slave.”

While living in New York she wrote her first screenplay, The Jar By the Door which was a Sundance Finalist and won several awards including the Gordon Parks Indie Film Award and 10k. She then attended the New York Film Academy to learn filmmaking and graduated having made her first short film.

After expanding her filmmaking knowledge she moved to Los Angeles and won several Fellowships and Awards in Writing and Directing including the ABC/Walt Disney Fellowship in Screenwriting for Memoirs of A Virgin Whore, The Guy Hanks and Marvin Miller (Cosby) Fellowship, the CBS Director’s Initiative and AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women Fellowship in which she wrote, directed and produced the multi-award winning short film, HOPE which currently airs on the cable network BETJ. BET then hired her as both a camera operator and Director on the reality TV show COLLEGE HILL.

During the 2004 Presidential election, Tamika wrote, directed and edited a documentary about the days leading up to the election, the results and how people were affected.

She also had the opportunity to shadow Rob Bailey, a Producer/Director for CSI:NY from script to screen of the show’s season finale, after she was chosen for the CBS Directors Initiative.

Tamika has produced several other short films including the award winning short film, THE MALE GROUPIE which currently airs on HBO. The award winning film SPIN, which she directed and produced had a long and successful film festival run. Interested in all aspects of directing, Tamika directed her first commercial - a spec for Doritos. Tamika also produced her first music video Motherload for artist Angela Luna.

Tamika created and founded, Make A Film Foundation (MAFF) a non-profit that teams industry professionals with terminally and critically diagnosed youth to create short film legacies. MAFF is currently in post-production for it’s next short film, Deep Blue and preparing for the next film. Tamika has committed to making a difference and serving the youth community through filmmaking.