Carly Tatiana Pandža has been performing, writing and directing stage and film from the age of 5 when she’d steal her mom’s VHS video camera and put on productions with her cousins in her grandmother’s living room. She received her double BFA from Chapman University for Film Production and Screen Acting.
Her 2010 documentary short “Shadows in the Forest '' filmed in Cameroon, Africa addressed how deforestation is destroying the homes of indigenous communities.
Carly was hired as the main writer for a Blue Sky team at Disney Consumer products in 2011. There she wrote extensive original content for a new Tween property that later became Disney Channel's "Descendants.” Descendants had 6.6 million initial viewers, which grew to 10.54 million after three days.
Carly is responsible for producing the successful “You Are Not Your Hair” charity event in 2014 in Los Angeles. This led to her 2015 feature-length documentary entitled “Hair” that followed her on the journey of discovering cultural identity through hair. The award-winning film was bought by Hulu and ran on their streaming service platform.
Carly has studied storytelling under prestigious, creative companies such as The Old Globe in San Diego, A Noise Within in Pasadena and The National Theatre School of Ireland in Dublin. She started her own theatre company in January 2019 called HER Theatre Company. The company's focus is to raise the visibility of underrepresented female artists in the theatre community.
She has a passion for unlocking potential for all ages as she has been a coach, consultant and leader of adult transformational learning programs since 2014. She has been trained and led transformational coaching and leadership programs at Landmark Worldwide where she has led, coached and impacted thousands of people’s lives.
A renaissance woman but when it boils down to it, she’s a storyteller. Through whatever medium or opportunity she’s committed to telling compelling stories that touch, move and inspire others. One of her passions is creating art that raises social consciousness and causes transformation in the world.