Daresha writes, produces, and directs narrative and documentary film and television projects in Spanish and English. A graduate of NYU Film School, she recently completed Battleground Georgia, a documentary about voting rights, for MSNBC’s series The Turning Point executive produced by Trevor Noah. Mama Bears, her second feature documentary about how conservative, Christian mothers are transformed when they decide to accept their LGBTQ children premiered at SXSW and won Best Documentary at multiple film festivals as well as Best Female Director at the Tallgrass Film Festival. In 2018 she was commissioned by the ACLU to direct Trans In America: Texas Strong, which garnered over 4 million views online, screened at SXSW, and won two Webby Awards and an Emmy for “Outstanding Short Documentary.” In 2017 she co-directed and produced Chavela, a multiple award-winning documentary about iconic singer Chavela Vargas that was distributed by Music Box Pictures and screened in over 40 countries, including Translyvania. In 2015 she produced Kristina Wong’s How Not to Pick Up Asian Women. In 2014 she served as EP of Emmy-winning writer Kevin Avery’s satirical take on The Wiz starring an all-white cast called The Whizz and in 2011 she produced his short comedy, Thugs, The Musical. In1992 Daresha won a full fellowship from Tri-Star Pictures to attend the directors’ program at the AFI Conservatory based on her short, award-winning narrative Land Where My Fathers Died, co-starring Isaiah Washington. She produced her first, award winning drama, The Thinnest Line, as a student at NYU. In 2022 Daresha was awarded a Soros Equality Fellowship from the Open Society. Her films have been funded by ITVS, NEA, IDA Enterprise, Creative Capital, the Jerome Foundation, and many other foundations. She was a fellow in the Firelight Media Documentary Lab, Chicken & Egg Eggcelerator Lab, Sundance Institute: Women and Film Financing Intensive, Breaking Through the Lens, Film Independent Documentary Lab, Creative Capital, and A Blade of Grass cohorts. Daresha also has an extensive background in television and has produced programming for FX, WE, AMC, Telemundo, and FUSE, among other networks.