Jennifer Akana Sturla
- Additional Crew
- Producer
- Actress
Jennifer Akana Sturla was born to a Hawaiian beauty queen and an
aerospace engineer from New Jersey. She earned her bachelor's degree in
literature from UC Santa Cruz and her MFA in production from the USC
School of Cinema-Television (now the School of Cinematic Arts). Her
thesis film "Kamea" (25 min., 35mm) won top prizes at several festivals
including Best Short at the 2004 Hawai'i International Film Festival.
She was next hired to write and direct the action-sports narrative film
"Ride the Wake" (22 min, 35mm) which found distribution to Amazon and
Netflix. Jennifer recently completed a sizzle reel for "Hawaiian Style"
(8 min., RED), a Hawaiian / hip hop coming-of-age dance feature film
she's working to get off the ground. The sizzle reel has been well
received on HawaiianStyleMovie.com and stars four of the dancers from
the Fox hit series "So You Think You Can Dance." Recent projects
include clothing and tattoo company Island Tat's commercial spots (now
airing on local Hawai'i t.v. stations).