Ariana Delawari

Ariana Delawari is an Afghan American filmmaker, musician, activist, and graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts. A year after 9/11 Ariana found herself on a plane to Afghanistan for the first time and began a ten-year documentation of her father's homeland. We Came Home is her award-winning feature-length directorial debut. The film is a culmination of this documentation, her family story, and the making of her album Lion of Panjshir. Lion of Panjshir was recorded in both Kabul and Los Angeles. Delawari collaborated with a few American band mates and three Afghan elder master musicians. The album was partially produced and mixed by filmmaker David Lynch, and Lynch released the critically acclaimed album on his record label. We Came Home was acquired and released digitally by Time in 2018.

Ariana was a performer and speaker at the inaugural TEDx Kabul. She started a grassroots peace initiative called Inspire Peace. Ariana wrote and directed a short surreal docu-musical film that accompanies her second album—both called Entelechy. She also cocreated an app called Afghanistan Connect with Afghan female coding students. She just gave a talk at TEDx Dethorne Women and is currently working on her fourth album.