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James Maziyar (“Maz”) Shani (born September 10, 1988) is an Iranian-American film and music video producer based in Los Angeles, California known for producing music videos for pop and hip-hop artists, including Lady Gaga, John Legend, H.E.R., Nas, Meghan Trainor, Snoh Aalegra, and Janelle Monáe. His debut feature film GULLY was directed by hip-hop music video director Nabil and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019. The film, which Shani executive-produced, was sold to Paramount Pictures and released in theaters in spring of 2021.

James Shani was born in the San Fernando Valley to Persian parents who immigrated from Iran. As a child, Shani was passionate about both hip-hop music and film, particularly Spike Lee’s film He Got Game and John Singleton’s films Poetic Justice and Boyz n the Hood.^[1] After applying to several film schools without getting accepted, Shani enrolled in The University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, where he spent his free hours in the film department.^[2][3] In 2012, Shani co-founded collective digital film studio Everdream Pictures with college friends, and in 2013 produced his first music video for hip-hop artist Nick Cannon, which went viral online.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} His senior year at USC, Shani became a figure in the film department, mentoring new directors and cold-calling record labels and managers on behalf of Everdream to produce music videos for their artists.^[9]

In 2014, Shani and several friends at Everdream wrote, directed, and produced a commercial for Tesla on spec.^[10][11] Working with a budget of less than two thousand dollars, Shani borrowed his college roommate’s father’s car for filming, one of only several hundred Teslas on the road at the time.^[12] Shani emailed the “Modern Spaceship” commercial to Tesla’s V.P. of Marketing.^[13] Tesla shared the commercial via Twitter to its 215,000 followers, calling it “a stunning video” in a tweet that went viral.^[14][15] A week later, Shani got a call from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who praised the commercial and invited Everdream’s founders to his office to discuss future work.^{[16][17] [18][19][20][21]}

Shani next approached Columbia Records, who hired his team to create a lyric video for John Legend’s 2013 single “All of Me”.^[22][23] Columbia agreed to Shani’s proposal to form a joint venture production partnership with Columbia’s music management team, pairing Shani and Everdream with Troy Carter, who was known for managing Lady Gaga’s rise to fame and founding entertainment and music management company Atom Factory.^[24][25][26] From 2014-2016, Shani and Everdream produced over thirty music videos in collaboration with Troy Carter and Atom Factory, including work for John Legend, Lady Gaga, Meghan Trainor, John Mayer, and other major musical icons.^[27][28][29] Shani and Everdream made the music video for John Legend’s single “You and I (Nobody in the World)” featuring actress and transgender activist Laverne Cox, which won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Music Video in 2015.^{[30][31][32][33][34][35]} Through the collaboration with Troy and Atom Factory, Shani met Lady Gaga’s current manager, Bobby Campbell, which led to an ongoing creative relationship between Shani and Lady Gaga.^[36][37]

During his time working with Atom Factory, Shani focused on cultivating directors and filmmakers straight from local film schools at USC, NYU, and Chapman University, providing space for new talent to hone their directing skills on lower-budget music videos.^[38] Everdream later launched a formal filmmaker-in-residence program at their Culver City digital studio to support new voices in the industry.^[39] Shani also produced a short documentary titled “Growth,” working with VIZIO to secure funding for one of the first brand-sponsored films screened at South by Southwest. “Growth” won the award for Best Short Documentary at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival.^[40][41]

The Everdream/Atom Factory partnership ended when Carter took a position as global head of creator services for the streaming giant Spotify. Shani moved on to found Madison+Vine, a creative agency representing directors for branded entertainment and working directly with brands on original commercial work, including a five-part documentary series produced by Shani for Gatorade called “Win from Within,” which was nominated for a Clio Award.^{[42][43][44][45][46][47]} Under Shani’s direction as CEO, the company created brandwork for a range of major clients including Samsung, Gatorade, Apple, Nike, and Pepsi as well as a nationwide back-to-school PSA for Staples featuring Lady Gaga.^{[48][49][50][51]} Madison+Vine also created branded, narrative entertainment content like Taco Bell’s Taco Tales, one of the first scripted shows for a brand, released weekly as a YouTube video series that lasted two seasons.^[52][53]

In 2015, Shani started working with Lady Gaga and her manager Bobby Campbell to produce visual content for Gaga’s Coachella performance as well as her 2016 album Joanne and corresponding 2017 Joanne World Tour.^{[54][55][56][57]} Shani produced the music video for the album’s debut single “Perfect Illusion” as well as the visually cohesive follow-up video for the album’s second single “Million Reasons."^[58][59]

In 2019 Shani returned to producing music videos and working directly with artists. He met fellow Iranian-American artist Snoh Aalegra and her manager/director Izabelle P. Wilson, and the three began working together. Shani produced Aalegra’s 2019 music video “Woah,” which features actor Michael B. Jordan, and the video for her 2021 single “Dying 4 Your Love.”^{[60][61][62][63]} Around the same time, Shani produced two narrative music videos in collaboration with up-and-coming director child.: “Fight for You” by H.E.R., which was featured in the 2021 Black Panther film Judas and the Black Messiah, and Grammy-winning artist Janelle Monáe’s track “Turntables.”^{[64][65][66][67]}

In 2019 Shani executive-produced his first feature-length film, GULLY, directed by hip-hop music video director Nabil. The film follows the lives of three L.A. friends navigating intense personal and socio-economic drama. Starring Jacob Latimore, Charlie Plummer, Jonathan Majors, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Amber Heard, and Terrence Howard, GULLY premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2019. The film was sold to Paramount Pictures and released in spring 2021.^{[68][69][70][71]} GQ Magazine editors included GULLY on their June 2019 list of “The Best Movies of the Year So Far,” calling the film “Moonlight meets Mid-90s meets Dope” and praising its “bright, surreal, and chaotic” character-driven narrative.^[72]

Over the course of his creative relationship with Lady Gaga, Shani has directed and produced films advocating mental health awareness on behalf of Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. In 2017, he directed and produced a nationwide back-to-school PSA for Staples featuring Lady Gaga. The video highlighted the work of classroom-focused nonprofit DonorsChoose.org, promoting kindness in schools and support for teachers.^[73][74]