Jennifer Akana Sturla

Jennifer Akana Sturla was born to a Hawaiian beauty queen and an aerospace engineer from New Jersey. She earned her bachelor's degree in literature from UC Santa Cruz and her MFA in production from the USC School of Cinema-Television (now the School of Cinematic Arts). Her thesis film "Kamea" (25 min., 35mm) won top prizes at several festivals including Best Short at the 2004 Hawai'i International Film Festival. She was next hired to write and direct the action-sports narrative film "Ride the Wake" (22 min, 35mm) which found distribution to Amazon and Netflix. Jennifer recently completed a sizzle reel for "Hawaiian Style" (8 min., RED), a Hawaiian / hip hop coming-of-age dance feature film she's working to get off the ground. The sizzle reel has been well received on HawaiianStyleMovie.com and stars four of the dancers from the Fox hit series "So You Think You Can Dance." Recent projects include clothing and tattoo company Island Tat's commercial spots (now airing on local Hawai'i t.v. stations).