Sanaa Hamri

In 1992, at just 17 years old, Sanaa Hamri left her home city of Tangier to study theater on a scholarship at Sarah Lawrence College in New York City. Following further college in Paris, she returned to Manhattan in 1996. She had aspirations to be an actor, but when the roles didn't come, she decided to try her hand at directing. She quickly learned she had a knack for it and started working on music videos, while trying to get the attention of the music industry. Her work paid off when renowned video mogul Malik Sayeed saw one of her early works and, impressed by it, presented it to singer Mariah Carey. Also taken with it, Carey enlisted Hamri to direct a video for her. She later went on to work on videos for artists like Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Sting, and many other big names. Her success in the video realm, led her to become the first Moroccan woman to direct a Hollywood motion picture with the 2006 romantic comedy "Something New." She followed that success up in 2007 with her television directorial debut on two series, the comedy/dramas "Desperate Housewives" and "Men in Trees." 2008 saw her return to motion pictures when she directed the sequel "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2." By 2010, she was back to television, directing an episode of the teen drama "Life Unexpected." She followed that up in 2011, when she worked on the American remake of the acclaimed British series "Shameless."