Kamran Pasha (Urdu: کامران پاشا; born on 3 April 1972) is an American screenwriter, director and novelist of Pakistani Sindhi origin. He was a writer and producer on the NBC series Kings,[1] after working as a producer on NBC's Bionic Woman.[2] Previously, he was a co-producer and writer for Sleeper Cell, Showtime Network's terrorism drama.[3] Sleeper Cell was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries in 2005[4] and for an Emmy for Best Miniseries in 2006.[5] Pasha has also written for The CW series Nikita, Reign and Roswell, New Mexico as well as the Disney XD animated show Tron: Uprising.[2]
In 2011, Pasha was hired to rewrite a movie screenplay entitled "The Immaculate" for Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and producer Charles Segars. The film follows an agnostic government agent assigned to protect a 17-year-old boy who some people believe is the Messiah.[6]
Pasha wrote his first video game for the hip hop artist 50 Cent in 2008. The game, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, is the sequel to the bestselling 50 Cent: Bulletproof and is distributed by Vivendi Games.[7]
Early career
editPasha was born on 3 April 1972 in Karachi, Pakistan, and migrated to the United States at the age of three. He was raised in Brooklyn in the predominantly Hasidic Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park.[8] He attended Stuyvesant High School in New York, graduating in 1989. He went on to Dartmouth College,[9] where he majored in comparative religion[8][10] and was an editor of the college newspaper, The Dartmouth.
After graduating, Pasha worked as a journalist for the Wall Street publisher Institutional Investor and the Knight Ridder financial newswire. During his tenure as a reporter, he interviewed international leaders such as the Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, the Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and the Peruvian president, Alberto Fujimori.[8]
He left journalism in 1996 and attended Cornell Law School.[11] He subsequently enrolled in the MBA program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and graduated with a joint law/business degree in 2000.[12]
Move into film industry
editPasha briefly worked as an attorney at the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film making. He attended the MFA Producers Program at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and graduated in 2003.[13]
His first television writing job was as a staff writer on UPN's remake of the classic series The Twilight Zone.[14]
In 2003, Pasha set up his first feature film project, a historical epic on the love story of the Taj Mahal, at Warner Brothers Pictures.[15] He subsequently wrote a screen adaptation of the Japanese anime Kite in collaboration with the director Rob Cohen and the producer Anant Singh.[16] He has also written screen adaptations of the Japanese horror film Ghost Actress by the director Hideo Nakata and adapted Deepak Chopra's novel, Soulmate.[17]
Pasha spent two years as a writer and co-producer for Sleeper Cell. In 2007, he signed on as a producer of NBC's Bionic Woman.[18]
Pasha wrote and directed the short film Miriam, which won the Gaia Award at the Moondance International Film Festival in August 2008.[19] The award is given to those who "elucidate and improve the spiritual quality of all life on the planet, and contribute[...] to the betterment of the world spirit".[20]
Personal life
editIn 2008, Pasha accompanied his mother on the hajj, the traditional Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.[1] Pasha blogs regularly for the Huffington Post.[21]
Books
editPasha sold his first two novels to Simon & Schuster in 2007. The books are entitled Mother of the Believers, a historical epic that follows the birth of Islam from the eyes of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's wife Aisha, and Shadow of the Swords, a love story set amidst the showdown of Richard the Lionheart and Saladin during the Third Crusade.[22]
References
edit- ^ a b Pasha, Kamran (2008-12-07). "A Hollywood Screenwriter Goes to Mecca". washingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on 2008-12-11. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
- ^ a b "Kamran Pasha". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-05-02..
- ^ Smith, Lynn (2005-07-31). "Showtime's 'Sleeper Cell' brings terrorism home". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "63rd Golden Globe Awards Nominations". Golden Globes. Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 2005-12-13. Archived from the original on 2007-04-02. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ Levin, Gary (2006-07-06). "Emmy barely budges from nomination rut". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ McNary, Dave. "SKE puts a mark on 'The Immaculate'". Variety. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
- ^ "50 Cent Is Back". Fox Business Network. 2008-03-27. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
- ^ a b c "BIOS". Network of South Asian Professionals – Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "dartmouth class of '93". Dartmouth College. 2005-08-12. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "HONORS THESES IN RELIGION: 1975-2006" (PDF). Dartmouth College. Retrieved 2007-05-02.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Cornell Law School Student Email Addresses". Cornell Law School. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "Interesting Links". Tuck2000.com. 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "Immigrants of the Week". Immigration Daily. 2008-02-19. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
- ^ "Kamran Pasha". TV.com. CNET Networks, Inc. 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ Dhar, S (2003-06-18). "Hollywood turns to India for inspiration". Asia Times Online. Archived from the original on 2012-07-24. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Scribe Hired For Rob Cohen's 'Kite' Adaptation". KillerMovies. 2004-01-20. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "SOULMATE". Artsmart. 2003-09-24. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "The Bionic Woman". Variety. 2007-09-21. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ "Moondance 2008 Winners". Moondance Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
- ^ "Moondance Awards". Moondance Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2008-06-17. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
- ^ "Blog Entries By Kamran Pasha". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
- ^ "Reading the Past". ReadingThePast.Blogspot.Com. 18 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-10..