Kamran Pasha

Kamran Pasha (Urdu: کامران پاشا‎) is a Hollywood screenwriter, director and novelist. 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" 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 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.[7]

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.[8]

In 2008, Pasha accompanied his mother on the hajj, the traditional Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.[1]

Pasha was voted as the #3 "Coolest Desi of 2008" by Desiclub.com, a popular South Asian website.[9] He was also cited as one of the top 10 famous Pakistanis by the Divanee.com. website.[10]

Pasha blogs regularly for the Huffington Post.[11]

Early career

Pasha was born 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.[12] He attended Stuyvesant High School in New York, graduating in 1989. He went on to Dartmouth College,[13] where he majored in comparative religion[12][14] 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 newsire. 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.[12]

He left journalism in 1996 and attended Cornell Law School.[15] 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.[16]

Move into film industry

Pasha 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.[17]

His first television writing job was as a staff writer on UPN's remake of the classic series The Twilight Zone.[18]

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.[19] He subsequently wrote a screen adaptation of the Japanese anime Kite in collaboration with the director Rob Cohen and the producer Anant Singh.[20] 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.[21]

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.[22]

Pasha wrote and directed the short film Miriam, which won the Gaia Award at the Moondance International Film Festival in August 2008.[23] 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".[24]

References

  1. 1 2 Pasha, Kamran (2008-12-07). "A Hollywood Screenwriter Goes to Mecca". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  2. 1 2 "Kamran Pasha". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-05-02..
  3. ↑ Smith, Lynn (2005-07-31). "Showtime's 'Sleeper Cell' brings terrorism home". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  4. ↑ "63rd Golden Globe Awards Nominations". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 2005-12-13. Archived from the original on 2007-04-02. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  5. ↑ Levin, Gary (2006-07-06). "Emmy barely budges from nomination rut". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  6. ↑ McNary, Dave. "SKE puts a mark on 'The Immaculate'". Variety. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
  7. ↑ "Reading the Past". ReadingThePast.Blogspot.Com. Retrieved 2007-11-10..
  8. ↑ "50 Cent Is Back". Fox Business Network. 2008-03-27. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
  9. ↑ "Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2008". Desiclub.com. 2009-01-02. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
  10. ↑ "10 Famous Pakistanis". Divanee.com. 2010-02-28. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
  11. ↑ "Blog Entries By Kamran Pasha". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
  12. 1 2 3 "BIOS". Network of South Asian Professionals – Washington, D.C. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  13. ↑ "dartmouth class of '93". Dartmouth College. 2005-08-12. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  14. ↑ "HONORS THESES IN RELIGION: 1975-2006" (PDF). Dartmouth College. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  15. ↑ "Cornell Law School Student Email Addresses". Cornell Law School. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  16. ↑ "Interesting Links". Tuck2000.com. 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  17. ↑ "Immigrants of the Week". Immigration Daily. 2008-02-19. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
  18. ↑ "Kamran Pasha". TV.com. CNET Networks, Inc. 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  19. ↑ Dhar, S (2003-06-18). "Hollywood turns to India for inspiration". Asia Times Online. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  20. ↑ "Scribe Hired For Rob Cohen's 'Kite' Adaptation". KillerMovies. 2004-01-20. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  21. ↑ "SOULMATE". Artsmart. 2003-09-24. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
  22. ↑ Variety Staff (2007-09-21). "The Bionic Woman". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
  23. ↑ "Moondance 2008 Winners". Moondance Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
  24. ↑ "Moondance Awards". Moondance Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2008-06-17. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
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