- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Nays Baghai is an award-winning independent filmmaker and underwater cameraman based in Sydney, Australia.
A graduate of Australia's national film school AFTRS, Nays' feature film debut, Descent, won the Best Australian Documentary award at the Oscar-qualifying Sydney Film Festival in 2020. The film has also screened at Hot Docs, Raindance and the International Ocean Film Festival and is now streaming on Amazon Prime ANZ. In 2021, Descent received development funding from Screen Australia. His second feature, Diving Into The Darkness, is due for release in 2024.
Prior to Descent, Nays' student short films won more than 20 awards from various international film festivals, including the Calgary International Film Festival, FlickerFest and the Robin Anderson Film Awards. He also holds experience in corporate videography and has shot and edited content for dozens of businesses and corporations, including Sony, Rolex, Telstra, Deloitte, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, 9 News, Tourism Australia, and many more.
As an underwater cameraman, Nays has also specialised in underwater cinematography and photography since he was 18 years old. He is a PADI-certified Freediving Instructor, Master Scuba Diver and Rescue Diver, and frequently uses Sony Alpha and RED Digital Cinema cameras. Nays can dive to over 40m both with and without tanks and specialises in filming divers, big animals, and actors within all genres and locations. He is certified on the JJ-CCR for extended rebreather dives into caves, wrecks and other environments inaccessible to recreational divers.
- IMDb mini biography by: Naysan Baghai
- Gender / Gender identityMale
- Plays 10 instruments - cello, double bass, electric bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, synthesisers, trombone, drums and percussion.
- Has both a photographic memory and perfect pitch.
- His favourite directors include Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve.
- In 2022, he became the world's first feature film director to ever become certified to cave dive on a rebreather and lead underwater film crews into caves beyond the reach of the sun. He accomplished this feat during the making of Diving Into The Darkness.
- He prefers to run smaller sets that are more collaborative, familial and relaxed.
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