Jacob Okada
Writer/Director/Producer
Born in Manhattan to a Japanese-American photographer and Jewish-Romanian author, Jacob is no stranger to culture crossing.
After earning his BFA from NYU, Jacob worked as a producer, editor, and director of photography on over a dozen documentary films and network series that have aired on HBO, PBS, Netflix, and National Geographic. He currently freelances as a story producer on Nat Geo Wild’s DR. K’s EXOTIC ANIMAL ER and SECRETS OF THE ZOO.
He has directed, shot, and produced two documentaries, CURTIS (2004, Sundance Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking) and PAINTING THE WAY TO THE MOON, as well as three narrative shorts. Jacob shot and co-produced the Emmy nominated documentary OFF AND RUNNING (2010 Tribeca Film Festival, PBS), about transracial adoption in the United States. He was associate editor of NEW YEAR BABY (PBS), about a family’s survival of the Khmer Rouge. Jacob is committed to telling stories that have social impact and artistic integrity.
ANYA is his first narrative feature.