A graduate from the University of Nottingham and the Oxford School of Drama, Nandini Rao is a screenwriter and a movie director from Bangalore, India. In 2021, she participated in and was declared the winner of the CANNESFILMS Unlimited writing residency, a program organised by Vivendi, Canal+, The Black List and the Université Côte d'Azur with the aim of nurturing the next generation of screenwriters. In 2022, she wrote and co-directed the animated short film Spirit of the Forest with a grant received from the National Geographic Society.