Iranian-born, Afarin moved to London as a baby with her family following the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Afarin first experimented with moving-image whilst at Central Saint Martins, where in 2007 she graduated with First-Class Honours in BA Graphic Design. In the same year, she won three prizes, including ‘Overall Winner’, at the well-reputed Kodak Commercial Awards.

In 2011, Afarin graduated from the National Film & Television School, with her debut film ABUELAS, an animated-documentary, using non-polemic narrative to highlight the plight of the Argentine “Grandmothers of May Square”. The film has had huge success, screening at over 160 film-festivals worldwide and receiving 70 awards, including a BAFTA-Nomination in 2012 for Best Animation.

Since then Afarin has worked as screenwriter working closely with BAFTA-winning director Jonathan Hodgson on a couple of animated-documentaries – one raising awareness about juvenile capital punishment, (produced by Guardian Films & Sherbet) and more recently a film about violence against women (produced by Womankind and Sherbet). The former was nominated in the Digital Innovation category of the 2013 Amnesty International UK Media Awards.

In 2013, Afarin was spotlighted as ‘one-to-watch’ by two of the UK’s prestigious film-industry schemes: She is one of the five directors selected to participate in the “Guiding Lights” mentoring programme and is being mentored by director Bart Layton. She was also featured as one of Screen International’s ‘Stars of Tomorrow’.

Afarin is currently developing ideas for both documentaries and fictions, and is making the move into live-action, where she hopes to continue making intelligent, beautiful films with heart.