about

“It’s about loving something, having so much love for something, that all that can be done with the overflow is to create. It is not a matter of wanting to, not a singular act of will; one solely must.”

— Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Soraya Simi is a Director, Producer, and Writer.

Originally from Arizona, she moved to California to attend USC's film school. There, she learned all about the spirit of collaboration, surfing and sailing, punctuality, and how to give and take good notes.

Outside of school, Soraya lived on a sailboat to study the impact of climate change and the legacy of colonialism in the Caribbean. She rode jet skis in the biggest waves in the world in Nazaré, and drove solo across the American West. Soraya independently directed & produced award-winning documentaries (or wrote essays) about these experiences.

She cut her teeth at production companies like Farm League, where she learned how to infuse stylistic, original filmmaking in commercial campaigns. After that, Soraya and her two best friends started their own boutique production company to produce high-level, high-budget branded content and commercials for major corporations, often featuring celebrities or people at the top of their craft. Somehow they managed to never reveal that they were college students, which is a good story for another time.

After graduating, Soraya met Paralympian and Marine Veteran Angela Madsen, who had seen Soraya’s sailing documentary at her local yacht club. The two worked closely together to produce Soraya’s first feature film, ROW OF LIFE, which follows Angela’s harrowing 2020 Pacific Row that gained worldwide attention. It is a significant and deeply personal story that exemplifies the complexity of a close character-director relationship, and how the stakes in non-fiction storytelling are not imagined, but very real.

Currently, Soraya is an EP & Co-Director for a true crime series about a wrongful conviction, Executive Produced by John Legend’s GET LIFTED & SCOUT Productions.

She occasionally teaches an after-school filmmaking program to kids, and founded a local film collective, 805 Film Co. in her hometown of Santa Barbara.

Soraya is always open for new work and/or play opportunities.