Tanuj Chopra
Director
Tanuj Chopra’s first feature film, Punching at the Sun, about South Asian teenagers coming of age in Elmhurst, Queens, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca, and won the Grand Jury Prize at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Other award-winning titles he's directed include Butterfly, Clap Clap, Carbon Dated and the ITVS/Futurestates film PIA, about a runaway, genderbending android.
Chopra is currently working on industrial and independent film projects through his production company Chops Films; projects include a $100,000 development grant from Visual Communications and the popular episodic mini-series Nice Girls Crew, starring Sheetal Sheth, Michelle Krusiec, and Lynn Chen. In his downtime, he facilitates New Voices For Youth, a filmmaking program in the South Bay Area dedicated to fostering creativity and civic engagement for at risk teenagers. He holds a BA in Art Semiotics from Brown University and an MFA in film direction from Columbia University, where he was awarded the prestigious Dean’s Fellowship.