Kiara C Jones

Kiara C. Jones is an acclaimed filmmaker who has built her career championing diverse, human-centered stories. The daughter of a Bronx-Brooklyn love story, Kiara grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. After the tragic loss of her father, she deferred college to enlist in the United States Air Force, where she served as a computer security specialist before transitioning to television and radio broadcasting. This sparked her passion for storytelling, leading her to complete her BA at UNLV and pursue Graduate filmmaking at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she developed her craft alongside notable filmmakers like Shaka King and Chloé Zhao under the creative direction of Spike Lee.

Kiara's directorial debut, Christmas Wedding Baby, earned her the Directors Guild of America Grand Jury Award and was distributed on Netflix and BET, highlighting her talent for crafting character-driven narratives. Her writing collaboration with Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher won the Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series at TriBeCa. Her producing work includes She's Lost Control, which earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and Premature, which premiered at Sundance and won the Some One to Watch Award for Director Rashaad Ernesto Green. Documentaries like 21 and Done, highlighting the plight of children aging out of Foster care, and A Woman on the Outside-which premiered at SXSW and won Best Documentary at the American Black Film Festival before premiering on PBS-showcase her dedication to telling complex, socially imperatively stories.

In addition to her filmmaking successes, Kiara is a recipient of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship (2021) and the NYC Women's Fund Grant (2020). She was also a Writers Guild of America East and FilmNation Screenwriting Fellow under mentor Scott Frank (2020) and an IFP/Blackhouse/HBO Producers Lab Fellow (2019). Recently, Kiara enhanced context and story as a producer on A&E's hit true crime series The First 48.