Biography

With an honors degree in communications from StXaviers Calcutta followed by a summer scholarship at Gallaudet Washington DC to study ASL with dance and theatre, Tess Joseph has always made eclectic choices. Tess Joseph began her journey as a Casting Director (India) on Mira Nair's 'Namesake' and went on to work with many international directors including Wes Anderson, Jeffrey Brown, Ang Lee and Doug Liman. Recently she cast the Indian cast of Lion produced by TWC and will premiere this year at The Toronto Film Festival 2016 and has Sunny Pawar already nominated for Critics Choice Awards. She was among of the Top 40 producers handpicked for the Puglia Experience 2013 by AFC Italy. Tess is one of the co-producers on Girl Rising and the lead producer for Girl Rising India. She was also field producer on Oscar winner Megan Mylan's short documentary on the girls education called After My Garden Grows. While making movies is her passion, she has also been on the Board of Directors of EU funded NGO GD-Sanjog which works to prevent exploitation and trafficking of children. Along with her friends she continues to run a program called Childwise which believes that children have innate wisdom and potential which adults need to learn from. She is Director of Kommune, a collaborative arts collective in India that funds and seeds ideas to actuality. Kommune was founded by Roshan Abbas, Ankur Tiwari and Gaurav Kapur. She studies process-based psychology, plays the piano, crusades for street dogs and is a travel junkie!
- IMDb mini biography by: Dyu DCunha

Tess Joseph began her casting journey with Mira Nair's The Namesake and has since established herself as one of India's most sought-after casting directors. She has collaborated with visionary filmmakers including Joe & Anthony Russo, Wes Anderson, Garth Davis, Ramin Bahrani, Ang Lee, Sam Hargrave, Lucy Liu, and Dev Patel. Her sharp instinct for talent introduced the world to Sunny Pawar (Lion) and BAFTA-nominated Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger), and she recently cast for Sitaare Zameen Par, Monkey Man, Hamlet (Riz Ahmed & Aneil Karia), and The Fable, which premiered at Berlinale 2024. In 2020, she was invited to join the Casting Directors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Beyond film, Tess is a chief cultural curator at Kommune, where she co-founded and has curated over eight editions of Spoken Fest-Asia's largest storytelling festival. Her work bridges artistic and regional divides, giving voice to new performers and narratives across India. Whether casting, teaching at SRFTII, or championing animal welfare, Tess is a lifelong believer in the power of story to connect us all.
- IMDb mini biography by: DyuDCunha