Pallavi Somusetty is a director and cinematographer whose documentary portraits center BIPOC voices in the hope that we feel fully seen, exploring intersections of identity and belonging for our communities. She has been a series producer for A-Doc’s Storytelling Initiatives since 2020 (including Emmy-nominated series Asian American Stories of Resilience and Beyond), and is currently a supervising producer for A-Doc’s 2024 election-focused microdocs series Our Stories, Our Voices. Pallavi’s feature debut in progress, COACH EMILY, is a DocLands DocPitch Industry Award Winner, and she is a 2023-2024 IDA Logan Elevate Fellow.
Her work has been supported by the IDA, Center for Asian American Media, California Film Institute, The Puffin Foundation, Eddie Bauer, Studio IX Project, Re-Present Media, and Center for Cultural Innovation. Pallavi’s award-winning cinematography has appeared on Nat Geo, PBS, and other media outlets. She holds a documentary-focused Master in Journalism from UC Berkeley and a BA in Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz. In her spare time she enjoys rock climbing and musical theater, and she supports incarcerated pregnant people as a doula.
