Kira Powell is an award-winning, NAACP Image Award–nominated writer-director and SAG-AFTRA actor of Black American and Ecuadorian heritage. She holds an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory. Her films explore identity and inheritance through stories centered on multiracial and immigrant experiences.
Her AFI thesis short Best Eyes earned the Directors Guild of America Jury Award for Outstanding Directing at the 2024 DGA Student Film Awards. The film premiered at the Academy Award®–qualifying Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) and was nominated for Outstanding Short Form (Live Action) at the 2026 NAACP Image Awards. Best Eyes also won First Place in the Afro-Latino Short Film Competition presented by AAFCA and LEJA, Best Student Short at the Georgia Latino Film Festival, and Best Narrative Short at the Compton Film Festival. Her films have screened at festivals including AFI Fest, Urbanworld, the Maryland Film Festival, and Black Harvest. Her psychological horror short The Good Mother premiered at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival.
Kira is a 2026 Cine Qua Non Lab Fellow and is currently developing her debut feature, The Second Child.
As an actor, she has appeared in film, television, national and international commercials, including the indie feature The Endless (Tribeca Film Festival), Jif’s “That Jif’ing Good” campaign—named one of Adweek’s Top Commercials of the Year—and projects with directors Larry Charles and John Hillcoat. She is also the creator and performer of the award-winning solo show Caught in the Mix, a personal exploration of growing up between Black and Latinx cultures.
Outside of filmmaking, she has traveled to over 40 countries and maintains a deep love for the theater.
SELECTED HONORS & DEVELOPMENT
2026 — NAACP Image Awards Nominee, Outstanding Short Form (Live Action), Best Eyes
2026 — Cine Qua Non Storylines Lab, The Second Child feature screenplay
2025 — First Place, AAFCA/LEJA Afro-Latino Short Film Competition, Best Eyes
2022 & 2025 — Sundance Institute Feature Film Development Track, Second-Round Contender, Caught In The Mix/Best Eyes feature screenplay
2025 — Sundance Institute Cultural Impact Residency, Finalist, Best Eyes feature screenplay
2024 — DGA Student Film Jury Award for Outstanding Directing, Best Eyes