Biography

Faythallegra is a screenwriter, director and actress. She was born and raised in Harlem. As a child she acted professionally and studied 35mm photography. She attended boarding school in Massachusetts and realized her passion for filmmaking at age 15 . She has been determined to make beautiful films ever since.

Faythallegra received her B.F.A from the Wesleyan University film program in Connecticut where she made several 16mm shorts and was immersed in both film theory and production. After graduating, she began writing and directing short narratives. Her work led to a Travel Channel appearance on 5 Takes Europe, a show that followed five young American filmmakers making films while backpacking through Europe. Conde Nast then commissioned Faythallegra to make a short film in Holland. The publishing company sent her to Amsterdam instructing her to ‘shoot her Holland’. She did just that and made Damsko, a stylized documentary about the art and music scene in Amsterdam.

Faythallegra’s body of work tends to depict the gritty realism of city streets. Her goal is to tell honest, lyrical stories that touch people. Her films have been featured in various film festivals across the country, earning raves for her understated, detail-oriented style of filmmaking.

Faythallegra was recently selected for the new Dove Real Girls beauty campaign. As part of this project a short documentary about her life as an emerging filmmaker will air nationally in May 2009 on the CW Network in conjunction with the show Gossip Girl. Faythallegra is proud of her work with the Dove beauty campaign and hopes that sharing her journey as a filmmaker will serve as an inspiration for all ambitious women of the world.

Faythallegra is currently beginning pre-production on her first feature film. She lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.