Anuka Sethi is an India-born, Dubai-raised and New York City-based actor, writer, producer, director & podcaster. She is a multi-hyphenate artist who graduated with honours from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama with training from Playwrights Horizons Theatre School and Stonestreet Studios. She also holds a minor in Business of Media, Entertainment & Technology. Since she grew up a TCK (third culture kid), Anuka has used her art as a way to connect with her roots and is passionate about creating work and space for South Asian artists.
Recently, she worked on the new play GIRLHOOD, a Columbia MFA Playwriting Thesis. You can read more here: Broadway World Article. During her third year at NYU she was selected as a Nine Muses Lab Fellow – working directly with Nine Muses Entertainment founder Bryce Dallas Howard. During her final semester at NYU, Anuka was asked to come back to the Lab as the Teaching Assistant. During this time, she co-wrote with fellow NYU student Saniya Jaffer, and directed and starred in a short film called ‘Hide & Seek’. With an all-female, majority BIPOC cast and crew of just 15, ‘Hide & Seek’ was filmed in just one day and is a poetic exploration of a girl’s struggle to navigate the in between spaces of her multicultural identity. It premiered at the London Indian Film Festival as part of the Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition and had it’s North American premiere at the DC South Asian Film Festival. It has also received official selections at Indie Shorts Awards New York and Cannes Indie Shorts Awards.
At it’s core, ‘Hide & Seek’ exposes and celebrates the constant conflict immigrant children often face through a very visceral, visual and audio experience. Its purpose is to bring authentic experiences felt by young immigrant women into the mainstream narrative and to encourage those who feel ashamed of their culture to embrace it because there is a way in which they can blend their western self with their more traditional self. Anuka’s deep dive into her own personal experience expresses not only how she feels but gives words to others who have felt this same tug between cultures. She captures this melancholy and poignancy in her voice and opens the door to speak about growing up and seeking a way in which to blend your identities instead of forcing them to be separate.
(Anuka’s Wesbite: https://www.anukasethi.com/)