Sanaa Hamri — From Tangier to Hollywood’s Biggest Sets
Sanaa Hamri — From Tangier to Hollywood’s Biggest Sets
Sanaa Hamri is one of Tangier’s most accomplished creative exports — a director whose work now sits at the very center of global film and television. From major Hollywood studios to some of the most influential artists of our time, her career has been built on talent, discipline, and a clear artistic vision.
Today, Sanaa is in an overall deal with Amazon Television Studios, where she continues to shape some of the studio’s most ambitious projects. She recently directed the pilot and second episode of The Bondsman, starring Kevin Bacon, and is currently directing both Season 2 and Season 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Before that, she served as Executive Producer and Director on Season 2 of The Wheel of Time, one of Amazon’s flagship fantasy series.
Many audiences first came to know her work through Empire, the Fox Broadcasting phenomenon that ran from 2015 to 2020. As Executive Producer and Director, Sanaa oversaw the show’s entire creative look and feel — from directing episodes to guiding production design, music, art direction, and costume. During this period, she also held a first-look deal with 20th Television, cementing her role as one of the industry’s most trusted creative leaders.
Her path to the director’s chair began in the editing room. Early in her career, Sanaa worked under the mentorship of acclaimed cinematographer Malik Sayeed, developing a sharp eye for storytelling through images and rhythm. That foundation led her into music video directing, where she quickly became one of the most sought-after visual voices in the industry.
Over the years, she has collaborated with an extraordinary range of artists, including Prince, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz, Common, and Nicki Minaj. Her work on India Arie’s “Little Things” earned an NAACP Image Award, while Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” won an MTV Video Music Award and became one of the most viewed music videos of its era, reaching hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. She also directed Mariah Carey’s sold-out concert documentary, The Adventures of Mimi, shot in high-definition with 14 cameras — an ambitious technical and creative achievement at the time.
In television, Sanaa’s directorial credits read like a list of modern classics. She has directed episodes of Shameless, Glee, Nashville, Elementary, Rectify, and Desperate Housewives, among others. She also directed the pilot for VH1’s hit series Hit the Floor, helping establish the tone and style that carried the show for multiple seasons.
Her feature film career began in 2006 with the Focus Features romantic comedy Something New, followed by The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and the Fox Searchlight hit Just Wright, starring Queen Latifah, Common, and Paula Patton. Each film reflected her ability to balance strong emotional storytelling with mainstream appeal.
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Sanaa now lives in Los Angeles, where she continues to work at the highest levels of the global entertainment industry — and remains a powerful source of pride for the AST alumni community.
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