Samantha Aldana is a director and writer based in Los Angeles. She has been drawn to tell stories containing magic, lore, and otherworldliness since she started putting her stories on screen when she was 12 years old. Her work is heavily influenced by the storytelling traditions of her multicultural upbringing in the American South and the Caribbean.
Her debut feature film, SHAPELESS, was selected as a 2020 fellow of the IFP Narrative Lab and premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. It was released by XYZ Films in the U.S. in February 2022.
Samantha is an alum of the NBC/Universal Diversity TV Director Program where she had the opportunity to shadow director Salli Richardson-Whitfield on SYFY's THE MAGICIANS and Marvel'sAGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Samantha is the recipient of the Belize Film Commissioner’s Emerging Storyteller Feature Film Award for her in-development featureLITTLE LYING WILD. This film was also selected to participate in the Tribeca Film Institute Network and the Emerging Voices Program at the New Orleans Film Fest.
Samantha holds a BA in Film Directing from Columbia College Chicago and is a member of WIFT and NALIP.
