Ruba Nadda (born 6 December 1972) is a Canadian film director. She made several award-winning short films, including Lost Woman Story, Interstate Love Story, So Far Gone and Damascus Nights before writing and directing features I Always Come to You, Unsettled and Sabah. Her movie Cairo Time won the Best Canadian Feature Film award at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and was Best Reviewed Romance on Rotten Tomatoes for 2010. She is known for shooting feature films in very short time spans.
Early life and education
Nadda was born to a Syrian father and a Palestinian mother.
Nadda studied literature at York University in Toronto, Ontario. She went on to study Film Production at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and completed a six-week course there.
Directing career
Nadda made her feature film debut with Sabah starring actress Arsinée Khanjian in the title role.
Her next film Cairo Time, starring Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig, was released in 2009 and won Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2012 Nadda reunited with her Cairo Time star Siddig to film Inescapable, a thriller which also featured Marisa Tomei and Joshua Jackson.
Nadda released her next film October Gale in 2014. The film, a thriller set in Georgian Bay, would reunite her with her Cairo Time star Patricia Clarkson. The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
In September 2014 Nadda announced that she would be reuniting with Patricia Clarkson on a TV series for HBO titled Elisabeth.
Personal life
In September 2014 Nadda announced that she was seven months pregnant.
Filmography
Films
1997
Wet Heat Drifts Through the Afternoon
Interstate Love Story
Do Nothing
1998
The Wind Blows Towards Me Particularly
So Far Gone
Damascus Nights
1999
Slut
Laila
2000
I Always Come to You
Blue Turning Grey Over You
Black September
I Would Suffer Cold Hands for You
2001
Unsettled
2004
Aadan
2005
Sabah
2009
Cairo Time
2012
Inescapable
2015
October Gale
Television
2016-2017
Killjoys
2016
This Life
2017-2018
NCIS: Los Angeles
2017-2019
Frankie Drake Mysteries
2017
Valor
2018
Hawaii Five-O
Taken
2019
Arrow
Roswell, New Mexico
The InBetween
Krypton
2020
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector
2021
Murdoch Mysteries
Hudson & Rex (S3E3, Into the Wild) 2022 Queens (S1E12, Let the Past Be Past) Riverdale (S6E13, Chapter One Hundred and Eight: Ex-Libris) Tom Swift (S1E8, ...And the Book of Isaac) Big Shot (S2E4, 17 Candles) 2023 Magnum P.I Alaska Daily (S1E8, "Tell a Reporter Not to Do Something and Suddenly It's a Party") Gray (S1E1-8)
Awards
2009: Won Best Canadian Feature Film award at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival for Cairo Time 2010: Best Reviewed Romance on Rotten Tomatoes for 2010 for Cairo Time