One of Hollywood's most accomplished directors, Nair has been lauded from her earliest endeavors. She found incipient and award winning success as a documentary filmmaker, before moving on to feature films. Ms. Nair's debut feature, Salaam Bombay!, was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Camera D'Or (for best first feature) and the Prix du Publique (for most popular entry) at the Cannes Film Festival as well as twenty-five other international awards. Since then, with films such as Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding, the Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, My Own Country, and Vanity Fair, Nair has become one of the most respected, acclaimed and award-winning directors of her generation.
Raised in India and currently living in New York, it is no wonder that Nair is adept at carefully and provocatively exploring issues of race, class, ethnicity and sexuality. Her natural grasp of these issues has resulted in several unique experiences. Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Nair joined a group of eleven renowned film makers, each commissioned to direct a film that was eleven minutes, nine seconds, and one frame long. Nair has also been appointed as a mentor in film by the prestigious Rolex Protégé Arts Initiative, joining fellow mentors Jessye Norman, Sir Peter Hall, David Hockney, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Saburo Teshigawara, to guide young artists in critical stages of their artistic development. Her film company, Mirabai Films, is establishing an annual filmmaker's laboratory, Maisha, which will be dedicated to the support of visionary screenwriters and directors in East Africa and South Asia.

From the director's chair, Nair has told the stories of people who exist on the margins and are often pulled between two competing worlds. A native of India, schooled at Delhi University and Harvard, she is particularly adept at telling stories that bridge the gap between cultures. She brings that same skill to her lectures and seminars. A natural on stage (she began her career in film in front of the camera, not behind), she challenges audiences to think about assumptions, stereotypes, and prejudices, and how these manifest themselves in our relationships. Using clips from her various films – as well as her own natural charm and humor – she draws her audience into a discussion of the issues explored in her films, as well as the art of filmmaking and the craft of storytelling. Audiences of all backgrounds are thrilled at having spent time with such an accomplished, generous, and thoughtful member of the Hollywood establishment.