Desiree Akhavan

Desiree Akhavan (, born December 27, 1984) is an American filmmaker, writer, and actress. She is best known for her 2014 feature film debut Appropriate Behavior, and her 2018 film The Miseducation of Cameron Post.

Early life and education Akhavan was born in Manhattan, New York in 1984. She has stated in interviews she now identifies as American. Her father has not returned to Iran since the 1980s, though Akhavan occasionally visited family overseas as a child. As a child, Akhavan lived in New Jersey before her family moved to Rockland County, New York. As a commuting student, she attended the Horace Mann School, an independent prep school in The Bronx.

Akhavan studied Film and Theatre at Smith College, a women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she was "a bit of a loner".

Career Akhavan made her first short film Two Drink Minimum while studying in London as a graduate student.

Akhavan has regularly appeared in her own work following her writing, directing, and acting in the lesbian-themed web series The Slope. She and Ingrid Jungermann, her creative partner, were named to Filmmakers 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2012. The series premiered in 2011.

In 2014, Akhavan's film Appropriate Behavior, in which she plays an alternative version of herself, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was first written as her senior thesis paper as a graduate student at New York University.

In 2015, Akhavan was the President of the Queer Palm jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

She has stated she draws inspiration from people such as Todd Solondz and Noah Baumbach. It aired on October 10, 2018, in the U.K. and on November 16, 2018, in the U.S. The sitcom explores misconceptions of bisexuality. In an interview with UK's Bazaar, she said, "To me that was the perfect way to handle bisexuality, through the lens of a lesbian." The critically acclaimed film won the 2018 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and was officially selected for the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Toronto LGBT Film Festival, San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, Outfest, and the San Francisco Indie Film Festival, earning multiple additional nominations and awards.

In an interview about her career with The Guardian, Akhavan proclaimed, "The only mainstream queer female stories have been directed by men--it disgusts me." In the same interview, Akhavan explains her intentions behind directing The Miseducation of Cameron Post. "I didn’t want it to be propaganda, though I think that would be a more commercially successful film. I wanted the tone to be right… Every film about teens is really about the moment they realise that none of the adults know what they’re doing."

In 2024, Akhavan's essay collection You're Embarrassing Yourself: Stories of Love, Lust and Movies was released. It follows Akhavan's life from childhood, to a nose job, to her time as an NYU graduate student, to her success as a filmmaker, all written in her characteristic self-deprecating humour. The book won the award for Bisexual Nonfiction at the 37th Lambda Literary Awards.

Activism Desiree Akhavan is an activist in advocating for the LGBTQ community in the film industry. She recounted in an interview that when she pitched The Bisexual to networks in Los Angeles in 2015, she "was rejected everywhere.” She stated the rejection was “because Americans are terrified of female sexuality,” on Twitter.

After doing well at Sundance, The Miseducation of Cameron Post had trouble finding a distributor, which Akhavan attributes to the evident sexism in the industry. "Very few women have won the Sundance award, and it’s not escaping me that the one film that’s about female sexuality, directed by a woman, is having a harder time getting out there," she says. "Things are changing in the industry, but female-driven stories, specifically sexually driven female stories, are very difficult. If there is sex in the film, it has to be a man’s pleasure."

Like many, Akhavan is calling for change in the film industry. "There’s clearly something toxic in this industry, a place where women are paid a quarter of what the men are paid for the exact same job. Clearly there’s something diseased here. And now maybe we’ll see that the work won’t suffer because of this, that it will become exciting and diverse and tell stories we haven’t heard before."

Personal life Akhavan is bisexual. She often explores her bisexuality within her work. 2018 The Bisexual Leila 6 episodesAlso co-creator, writer and director 2020 Briarpatch Director: "Breadknife Weather" 2020 Ramy Director: "Uncle Naseem" 2020 Monsterland Director: "Iron River, MI" 2021 Hacks Director: 2 episodes 2022 I Love That for You Director: 2 episodes 2023 Tiny Beautiful Things Director: 4 episodes 2025 Overcompensating Director: 4 episodes Web