Shehani is an award-winning producer/director based in London, focussing on immersive storytelling. Most recently she produced ‘The Waiting Room VR’ with BAFTA-winning director Victoria Mapplebeck, which took an unflinching look at life with breast cancer. It premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and won the IDFA Doclab Award for Digital Storytelling in 2019.

 

She has worked in a number of roles at The Guardian, including acting Head of Audio where she oversaw all their podcast output. From 2016-18 she directed VR experiences for the Guardian’s in-house VR studio that were rooted in journalism and paired with innovative storytelling. The studio experimented with interaction, motion capture, scanning, animation and 360 shooting to enable new perspectives on subjects like asylum, autism and solitary confinement. Her work has toured to international festivals. 

 

She spent many years as a multimedia journalist for The Guardian shooting and editing short films, and has also worked for the BBC and Al Jazeera. She has lectured on immersive storytelling at Royal Holloway University, University of the West of England and StoryFutures Academy, as well as recently serving on the jury for the Encounters Film Festival and Amnesty International Media Awards.