Lara Panah-Izadi studied Math & Philosophy at Yale before working on the sets of major Hollywood directors including Barry Levinson, Quentin Tarantino and David Fincher. In 2017, she directed and edited her first narrative short, Chloe, a psychological thriller. That year, Lara also moved to LA to work in creative development at Paramount Television.  Her second short film The Summer of Snakes, a biographical drama inspired by the life of artist Niki de Saint Phalle, was produced by Levantine Films (Hidden Figures, Beasts of No Nation) and has won multiple awards at festivals in Europe and the US in 2021. Lara graduated in 2020 from the prestigious AFI Directing Workshop for Women program and is currently developing her first feature film and two TV shows.