Saba has been involved with the festival for over 10 years, starting as festival coordinator and now Operations Director having managed the administration and operations of the organisation, volunteer recruitment, internships, PR services, sponsorship and relationships with the third sector. Saba has overseen the strategic growth of the organisation, introducing tailored event management to the high profile annual festival with screenings and events across the city, liaising with film makers, distributors, venues and film talent. Plus she is one of the two producers of the UK Heritage Lottery-funded documentary Movies, Memories, Magic. Saba’s main work is now in the heritage sector, working at the British Library in digitisation. Outside of work she is involved with community archiving projects, working as a parent governor at Nower Hill High School, and is the treasurer (and a founder) of the Friends of Headstone Manor Park.

Rakhee Joshi is Chair of the UKAFF’s Advisory Board and a self-proclaimed “film buff”.  Rakhee has a deep-rooted passion for independent, South Asian film and the arts, with a particular interest in women’s issues and mental health.  Rakhee has supported the UKAFF for a number of years; absorbing herself in the world of film, feeding-in to the team’s programming efforts, talent introductions and volunteering.  Separately, Rakhee is a practicing solicitor in England and Wales and has spent over a decade advising firms on a broad range of commercial matters.

Dr Alina Mirza has an interest in the arts and film, especially their role in the rehabilitation process with respect to mental health and general well-being. She has been with the UKAFF team since 2017 and coordinates the UKAFF Scotland Tour. As well as being an award-winning artistic director, she also is a public health specialist. She received a Health Education Board for Scotland Fellowship in 1995 and completed her Masters in Public Health from the University of Glasgow in 1997. She also completed training in production with BBC Scotland in 2004. She has extensive experience in women’s health and mental health, having worked with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Research and Training, Rawalpindi General Hospital, Pakistan and chaired the Black and Ethnic Minority Women's Health Group Glasgow, Healthy Cities Partnership, UK.
Alina has pioneered links between artistic and educational institutions in the UK and Pakistan, and other Commonwealth countries. She was awarded the prestigious British Muslim House of Lords Award for Art and Culture in 2009. In 2007, she was shortlisted for the UK Asian Women of Achievement Awards, Arts and Culture.

Dr Ashvin Immanuel Devasundaram is Senior Lecturer in World Cinema at Queen Mary University of London. He is author of India's New Independent Cinema: Rise of the Hybrid (Routledge, 2016) and Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: The New Independent Cinema Revolution (Routledge, 2018) - the world's first book and edited anthology on new Indian Indie films. Ashvin is Associate Director of the UK Asian Film Festival – London and has directed the UK Heritage Lottery-funded documentary Movies, Memories, Magic (2018).

Dr Monia Acciari completed her doctoral research at the University of Manchester with an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project entitled “Indo-Italian screens and the Aesthetic of Emotions.” Her principal research interests lie in the areas of film and cultural studies. Her areas of research are: film festivals, curatorship, new-wave Indian cinema (Transnational Marathi cinema), Bollywood, South Asian diasporic cinema, film archives and Indian collections, dubbing and subtitling. Additionally, film restoration, preservation and cultural theory. Since 2017, she is co-director of the UK Asian Film festival in Leicester and director of the Indian Cinema Archive at De Montfort University. She has led international research projects on Bollywood dubbing and subtitling, film archives and currently writing her monograph on Indian film festivals.

Suniya Qureshi has been a Senior Strategy Adviser at the International Unit G20 of the Department for Work Pensions and worked across UK government departments on social protection and human rights, international labour markets, and employment strategies in some of the UK's most deprived wards. She ran the British Pakistan Foundation as Executive Director for two years whilst on a sabbatical from the civil service. Creating a formidable platform for the British Pakistani Diaspora. Suniya has also written and produced six theatrical plays and is currently working on her seventh venture under Ludoo Productions.com. She has additionally consulted for Oxfam and Southbank Alchemy, on cultural and community fundraising and engagement and brokering Pakistan content respectively.

Saz Vora was born in East Africa and migrated with her family to England in the ‘60’s to Coventry, West Midlands, where she grew up straddling British and Gujarati Indian culture. Her debut duet My Heart Sings Your Song and Where Have We Come is a story in two parts about love, loss and family, the second book in the series is based on true events that has shaped her outlook on life’s trials and tribulations. Saz has previously had a successful career in Television Production and Teaching but her need to write stories has led to what she is doing now – writing stories about people like her in multi-cultural Britain.
Saz is the Director of the Short Film Competition at the UK Asian Film Festival, and has mentored emerging talent and digital commissions in 2019/2020. She is a founding member of the Asian Circle, an affiliate of The Circle, an NGO set-up by Annie Lennox.

Vikas has over 14 years of brand marketing experience in multinational and multicultural environments having held executive positions across Non Profit, Tech, Insurance and Luxury sectors. During his career, he has built a reputation for marketing excellence, innovative strategic thinking, working with the highest level of integrity and a deep and passionate commitment towards his work. Today, he resides in New Delhi, India.

Sana Soni is an independent film sales and distribution executive in Washington DC, originally from Budapest and New Delhi. She has an extensive background in film and TV sales from multiple studios and independents in both Los Angeles and London, including Discovery, Warner Bros, NBC Universal, Signature Entertainment, National Geographic, and Walden Media. A UCLA and New York Film Academy graduate, she brings market expertise to features and series in development or those looking for distribution. She’s spoken at DC Independent Film Festival and Raindance Film Festival, judged for the Brooklyn Film Festival, and is also on the advisory board for Film Hub Wales.

Dr Mayukh Gayen is a qualified actuary and a chartered enterprise risk manager, he is currently working as a quantitative modeller in the financial district of the city of London. Alongside that, he is also a certified mental health first aider and a champion of climate change related risks and awareness. He is a trained Hindustani classical singer with a soft spot for Bollywood music. He strongly believes film is a mode where all these dimensions can come together and have the power and reach to make a difference in people’s lives and society.

They say when you follow your passion you achieve great things. That may be true. I absolutely adore cinema and have followed the festival at the UK Asian Film Festival for many years so when they asked me to join them, I was thrilled. As a trustee of a charity that has worked alongside the festival, I have experienced first-hand their expertise in the field.

Now as a board member I look forward to working with an amazing team and to get more involved with getting our message out to a wider audience. I am really happy that with the team we can help create a younger audience to love South East Asian cinema as much as we do.

Dr. J. Daniel Luther is Associate Programme Director at The Rhodes Trust, University of Oxford. They are the co-founder of 'Queer' Asia and co-edited 'Queer' Asia: Decolonising and Reimagining Sexuality and Gender (Zed, 2019). Their research is centered on Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in South Asia and South East Asia and includes publications on Bollywood, Queer Film Festivals in the Global South, and Queer Theory. Their forthcoming monograph is titled Queering Normativity and South Asian Public Culture: Wrong Readings Only (Palgrave, 2023).

Amit Kaur is a filmmaker bringing over a decade of experience across formats from India’s earliest web series to critically acclaimed international films and commercials. Her interdisciplinary work includes Arts Council funded documentaries on underrepresented communities. A champion of inclusion, Amit co-founded ARInclusive, a creative studio promoting diversity in entertainment. As a UK Asian Film Festival board member, she lends her expertise and passion for diverse storytelling.