Natalie Jasmine Harris
Natalie Jasmine Harris is a Black queer film writer, director, and programmer from Silver Spring, Maryland. She received her BFA in Film and Television from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. As a filmmaker, her work spans narrative, documentary, and experimental forms but is centered around a mission to tell stories that capture coming-of-age experiences, showcase Black joy, and reimagine liberation for marginalized communities.
Natalie is a 2024/2025 Sundance Ignite Fellow. She was a 2023 Film at Lincoln Center Artists Academy Fellow and has been selected to participate in artist programs with GLAAD, Outfest, Traverse32, Creative Culture at The Jacob Burns Film Center, and The Future of Film Is Female. Her most recent short film, GRACE had its world premiere in January at The 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
Natalie's NYU thesis film, "PURE," received The 2020 Directors Guild of America's Student Film Award and screened at over 50 film festivals worldwide including BFI Flare, ABFF, NewFest, Outfest, and The Hamptons International Film Festival. In February 2022, the short film was acquired for distribution by HBO and is now available to stream on Max.
Natalie is working with award-winning producer, Avril Speaks, to adapt the concept behind "Pure" into a feature-length film of the same name that has garnered support from SFFILM's Rainin Screenwriting Grant, The Gotham Week Project Market, Outfest's Screenwriting Lab, The Toronto LGBTQ+ Financing Forum, Film Independent Fast Track, and The WIF x Sundance Financing Intensive.
Natalie's work has been featured in publications that include Teen Vogue, THEM Magazine, Huffington Post, The Cut, and NBC. Natalie is also an emerging commercial director, having directed spots for Hyundai and Verizon. In December 2022, Natalie was included in The Alice Initiative’s 2022 List of Emerging Female Directors ready for their first studio feature.
In the Summer of 2024, Natalie worked in partnership with UCLA's Film and Television Archive to program QUEER RHAPSODY, a community-led film series bringing two weeks of LGBTQ+ cinema to Los Angeles. Natalie is also an accomplished film producer, having worked on independent films and with media brands such as Vogue Magazine, Vanity Fair, Paramount, LogoTV, and more.
Photography by JESS X SNOW
