OUR TEAM
Fawzia Mirza | Co-Founder and President
Fawzia is a queer, South Asian, Muslim filmmaker. Her feature film THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS screened at TIFF, SXSW and BFI London Film Festival. It was nominated for a 2026 GLAAD Award, 5 Canadian Screen Awards, winning 2, and Fawzia was named Best Feature Director by the Directors’ Guild of Canada. For television, she wrote on CBS series THE RED LINE, where her episode marked the first queer, Muslim romance on network TV; she directed on S1 and the upcoming S2 of Hulu’s DELI BOYS, and S3 of the Crave original series LATE BLOOMER.
She co-wrote & starred in the beloved queer romcom SIGNATURE MOVE, and directed the Tubi Original film KISSING IS THE EASY PART. Her award-winning short films have screened around the world, and through her production company Baby Daal Productions Fawzia continues to executive produce shorts and documentaries, including recent Venice Film Festival selection THE CURFEW. Fawzia was an advisor for Sundance, Pillars, 1497, Queer Muslim Project, Washington Filmworks and more. She is a 2026 USA Artists Fellow, a White House Champion of Change in Asian American Art & Storytelling (in the Obama White House), a Reel World Trailblazer, and a Sundance Institute Disney Fellow. See more at fawziamirza.com.
Andria Wilson Mirza | Co-Founder and CEO
Andria is a CMPA Award-Nominated producer, a PGA Creates Fellow and the co-founder of Baby Daal Productions, which she runs with her wife, filmmaker Fawzia Mirza. She recently produced their award-winning Pakistan-Canada co-production THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS, and Drew Denny's gender-based violence documentary SURVIVOR MADE with an all-survivor crew and creative team. THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS screened at TIFF, BFI and SXSW, winning more than 14 awards including 2 Canadian Screen Academy Awards and the Directors Guild of Canada Best Feature.
Upcoming projects include the Canada/Australia co-production WRITTEN IN THE STARS (pre-production), Ben Lewis' feature debut DON'T LET HIM GET TO YOU with Tatiana Maslany (Development), and short films currently on the festival circuit include Shehrezad Meher's Venice premiere THE CURFEW and Lewis' SHE RAISED ME (Aspen, SFFILM) starring Rosie O'Donnell.
Andria leads Women In Film, Los Angeles' (WIF) Global South initiatives, including the recent launch of WIF India and 10 new WIF chapters across the continent of Africa. She previously led ReFrame, Hollywood's gender equity coalition founded by Sundance Institute and WIF. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Inside Out, Canada’s largest LGBTQ media organization, where she co-founded the world’s only financing forum for LGBTQ films. She is currently on the advisory board of Hire Survivors Hollywood and the management committee of Anita Hill’s Hollywood Commission working to end gender-based harassment in the industry. She is a senior consultant for GLAAD’s Hollywood team and collaborates with numerous organizations in the US and abroad on programs related to gender and the screen industries.
Samia Malik | Coordinator
Samia Malik is a Chicago- and LA-based writer and filmmaker. Her writing focuses on character-driven comedy and dramedy, exploring identity, family, and the systems that shape everyday life. A first-generation Pakistani Muslim American with a background in architecture and production design, she brings a visually grounded, socially conscious lens to her work, often using genre or heightened concepts to tell emotionally resonant stories.
Before transitioning fully into writing, producing, and directing, Malik spent eight years working in the art department, where she developed a deep understanding of visual storytelling and production design. Through her role as Assistant Art Director on Deli Boys, she created relationships that allowed for exploration in other departments, including Writer’s PA. The writers' room led Samia to the Director's shadow program where she was able to observe Fawzia in action as she directed three episodes for season 2. She joined the Baby Daal team in February of 2026.
WHAT WE DO
We make movies (and some pretty delicious daal).
Baby Daal Productions is an independent film production company that harnesses the power of historically underrepresented artists and audiences. Our leadership is queer, female, South Asian, Muslim, and Canadian of immigrant experience. We are drawn to work that centers joy over trauma, and believe that our advocacy efforts to create a more equitable and kind industry are inextricably tied to both the kind of art that we make, and the way that we make it.
Baby Daal’s business model involves a diversified approach wherein the principals act as key creative drivers of some projects, and advisors and shepherds of other projects. We're building a dynamic and representative slate that includes narrative projects written and directed by Fawzia and produced by Andria, alongside those that the duo or individuals board as EPs or creative advisors, as well as projects that Fawzia may board as a director only and Andria as a producer only. This allows for incubation and production of both narrative and documentary projects that highlight our core mission and values, but diversify our offerings.
Our industry is global and our goals are, too. The principals currently split their time between Toronto and Los Angeles, and are attached to a number of international coproductions.
