Ilyas Waheed

Ilyas Waheed is a Maldivian film director, producer, screenwriter and editor

Early life Inspired by his father's patriotism, Waheed inclined to pursue a career as an army officer.

After completing his GCE Ordinary Level education from Majeediyya School, Waheed joined Maldives National Defence Force to complete his bond term. The film received unanimous positive reviews from critics, where Ifnaz Ali from Dho? credited the film with a four star rating and applauded the screenplay for its "tight suspense" "incorporated humor"، while Aminath Luba reviewing from Sun opined that Bavathi will go down the history lane as an "unexpected masterpiece". Similar sentiments were echoed by Ahmed Hameed Adam from Avas who picked Waheed's screenplpay as the "highlight of the film".

In 2021, Waheed released his four-part anthology web series titled Mazloom follows the lives of several victims including survivors of rape assaults, victim of domestics abuse and human trafficking. Produced in association with a newly established film production company, Kazmik International, the project was developed to encourage and support the hard working artists of Maldives during economically uncertain times with regard to COVID-19 pandemic. The series received positive reviews from critics; Ahmed Rasheed from MuniAvas wrote: "If you are up for a quality, interesting and a benhcmark web series, "Mazloom" is the right choice for you". He again collaborated with Kazmik International to co-produce Azhan Ibrahim's eight-episode crime thriller Dharaka.

This was followed by his horror thriller anthology web series Biruveri Vaahaka, consisting of fifteen episodes. Upon release, the series received positive reviews from critics, where Ahmed Rasheed from MuniAvas wrote: "the whole crew has executed their respective roles to its fullest leading the final project to be flawless".

Filmography

Accolades Year Award Category Nominated work Result 2025 1st MSPA Film Awards Best Director Nina Best Story Bavathi Nina Best Original Screenplay Free Delivery Best Editor Free Delivery (Shared with Mohamed Abdul Ghanee)