Director Biography – Portlynn Tagavi (THEY WON’T LAST)

Portlynn is a half Persian, half African American filmmaker who has just received her Masters in Directing at AFI where she developed her skills as a writer and director for narrative film. Originally from Houston Texas, Portlynn moved out to California in 2010 to study Character Animation at the California Institute of the Arts. During her studies, she interned with Pixar Studios where she developing her skills in visual language and narrative structure. Before attending AFI she spent three years working professionally as a Character and Story Artist for Fox, Paramount, Psyop, the Jim Henson Company (SPLASH AND BUBBLES) and DreamWorks (TROLLS: THE BEAT GOES ON!) before making the jump to live action directing. She is now currently developing future projects as well as teaching Story development part-time at CalArts.