Biography

Emil Garuba is a Nigerian American screenwriter, creative consultant, director, and producer. He has a Master's Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Central Oklahoma. His work spans feature films, short films, documentaries, and television shows including the 2015 AFRIFF Audience Choice Award-winning documentary Silent Tears, M-Net Africa's first soap opera Tinsel, and the Africa Magic Original movies Moving On and Lovestruck.

Emil has worked as a script editor on nine award-winning short films for the Nigeria Integrity Film Awards platform (HOMEVIDA) and as a story consultant on the hit television series Sons of the Caliphate for EbonyLife TV.

Emil co-wrote the 2016 AMVCA-winning Feature Film Road to Yesterday and the 2019 family drama Lionheart, the first Netflix original film from Nigeria. In 2019, Emil co-wrote the political thriller 4th Republic. Emil made his directorial debut with the acclaimed short film Last Tango in Abuja in 2020. His most recent work includes SIN (2025), starring Jim Iyke, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Emil was a participant in the UK-Nigeria Script Junction Workshop, a program developed by the British Council with the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) and 2015 African International Film Festival (AFRIFF).

In 2023, Emil participated in the Episodic Lab & Development Executive Trainee program facilitated by Realness Institute and Netflix. The same year, he participated in the Durban Film Mart Institute Business Lab. In 2024, Emil served as a mentor in the FilmLab Africa British Council program, guiding emerging Nigerian filmmakers through a comprehensive support system designed to foster the next generation of cinematic talent.

In 2025, Emil participated in the Gender Equitable Storytelling Directing Course sponsored by the Creative Economy Practice at Co-creation Hub. The program focused on directing with a gender lens-training participants in visual storytelling, actor direction, equitable casting, crew balance, editing choices, and leadership on set.

Emil is the Creative Director of Sutoritera Limited, a Nigerian story development and media production company. Sutoritera has produced the critically acclaimed and award-winning short films Leading Lady and Last Tango in Abuja. Sutoritera's feature film slate includes the co-productions In Another Life and A Land Apart. Another co-production Maia is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
- IMDb mini biography by: Emil Garuba