About -

About

Shripriya Mahesh, Filmmaker

Shripriya Mahesh is a filmmaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She grew up in Chennai, India in a family of entrepreneurs, artists, and non-profit pioneers. She knew she wanted to be a visual artist at age 7, when she got her first camera (she didn’t know or use the term “visual artist” back then).

Shripriya wrote and directed “Waking Jed“, a short film featuring Academy Award® Nominees James Franco and Jessica Chastain. This short film was edited with 11 other films to create the omnibus feature, “The Color of Time“, that premiered at the Rome Film Festival 2012 and had a theatrical release in the US in 2014.

Shripriya’s feature script, “Varenya“, was an official selection at IFP’s Emerging Storyteller section and participated in Independent Film Week, 2013. It was also selected to participate in Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab, 2013. “Varenya” was presented in the Co-Production Market at the National Film Development Corporation’s Film Bazaar in Goa, India.

Shripriya has made several award-winning short films.
In That Moment“, was an official selection at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and 18 other festivals.
The Way It’s Played” was an official selection at the New York Indian Film Festival and several others.
Reprise” was an official selection at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (Frameline), the Rhode Island International Film Festival and over a dozen other festivals. It won the Best Student Film Award at the 12th deadCenter Film Festival, Best Short by a Woman award at the 9th Salento International Film Festival and was a finalist for the 6th Iris Prize.

She edited the short film, OK Breathe Auralee, which was an official selection at Sundance, Sydney and Melbourne Film Festival in 2012.

Shripriya’s day job is as the Founding Parter at Spero Ventures, where she invests in founders building the things that make life worth living. In addition to serving on the boards of several of the technology companies in which Spero Ventures has invested, she also serves on the Boards of Directors of eBay and Turo, and on the Board of Trustees of The Sundance Institute.

Shripriya earned an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Film Program and was the recipient of a Tisch School of the Arts Fellowship. She also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Stella Maris College (Madras University).