Her Story
About parnika
Parnika Raj is a freelance film director and editor specializing in film and commercial projects. With 8 years in the industry, she began her career working in various roles on music videos, web series, and commercial sets, progressing from production assistant duties to production design, producing, project management, editing, motion graphics, animation, and VFX. She later served as a full-time assistant editor on projects for clients including Nike, Mercedes, Google Pixel, and a music video with Drake. More recently, she has directed a short film, a web series, and a commercial for Sephora, while continuing to edit for major brands such as Google Pixel. Raj studied in the highly competitive RTA media program at Ryerson, now known as Toronto Metropolitan University, completing 4 years and earning the Best Thesis award for her project. In high school, she won multiple video competitions at city, regional, and provincial levels. Her work often explores themes of human connection and relationships, as seen in her short film Timeless, which addresses intergenerational trauma in the South Asian community. She attributes her success to focus, determination, grit, and perseverance, and values the advice to follow what you fear, believing there is a gift on the other side.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with parnika
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think focus and also attitude or perspective. It's really easy to think that the whole world is falling down especially when you are in early stages of your career and you're trying to get these projects that you're doing completely by yourself off the ground. If you really really want something your sheer determination and focus and grit is what you need to hold onto till the very end and just not let it get to you. There's a lot of perseverance.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My favorite quote is Follow what you fear and there's a gift on the other side. There's a lot of fear when trying to sustain yourself as a freelance director and editor financially and with time to make stuff. A director that I look up to a lot said that to me.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think connection between yourself and relationships with other people is something I've always very heavily valued. A lot of my work explores connection between other humans and how that changes and evolves over time. My short film Timeless explores themes of intergenerational trauma in the South Asian community.
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