Zoya Akhtar

Zoya Akhtar
Akhtar at the promotion of Talaash in 2012
Born	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Director, screenwriter
Years active	1999—present
Relatives	Javed Akhtar (father) Farhan Akhtar (brother) Honey Irani (mother)

Zoya Akhtar is an Indian film director and screenwriter. She made her debut as director with the critically acclaimed Luck By Chance in 2009. In 2011, she directed the critically and commercially successful film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and won the Filmfare Award for Best Director for it.

Zoya Akhtar was born to poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and screenwriter Honey Irani. Zoya's stepmother is Shabana Azmi. Zoya is the sister of Farhan Akhtar. She went to school at Maneckji Cooper and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at St. Xavier's College, both in Mumbai. Later, she joined the New York University Film School to learn film production.

Her great-great-grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, a scholar of Islamic studies and theology, notably edited the first diwan of Mirza Ghalib on his request, and later became an important figure during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in his native Khairabad. She is great-granddaughter of renowned Urdu poet Muztar Khairabadi and granddaughter of Jan Nisar Akhtar.

Zoya grew up in an agnostic environment and along with her brother Farhan and father Javed Akhtar, she does not believe in any religion.

Zoya started her career as co-director of a music video called "Price of Bullets" for a rock band called Pentagram. She has worked as a casting director for films including Dil Chahta Hai and Split Wide Open, and as an assistant director for her brother Farhan Akhtar's films, Lakshya and Dil Chahta Hai. She then worked as an executive producer for her longtime partner Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., also produced by Excel Entertainment.