I’m Desireena Almoradie (she/they), a media activist, cultural worker, filmmaker, editor and producer.

At Almoradie Media, I create documentary and scripted video for non-profits, advocacy groups and educational institutions. I guide projects from concept and script through production and post-production, telling stories that center community and move people to take action.

My commitment to community-focused storytelling comes from my own experience. I emigrated from Manila, Philippines, at age eleven and settled with my family in Queens, New York. I’m a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan. I spent my youth in NYC as a “TNT” (tago nang tago, or “always hiding”) until I obtained legal status through the 1986 Amnesty Law. That made me eligible for government scholarships just in time for film school.

Since graduating from NYU, I’ve made work exploring collective history, with a focus on queer and BIPOC lives. I received an Emmy nomination and won a GLAAD Media Award for my work on In the Life, the groundbreaking LGBT newsmagazine that aired on PBS for two decades. In 2025, I won a Writers Guild Award for a series of get-out-the-vote ads produced for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. I also co-founded the Diverse Filmmakers Alliance (DFA), a collective of filmmakers from all backgrounds working to diversify the filmmaking landscape.

My documentary Because of You: A History of Kilawin Kolektibo, made in collaboration with Barbara Malaran, explores the history of the Filipinx lesbian collective. It received support from the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, the Prism Foundation, the Barbara Hammer Experimental Filmmaking Grant and the New York State Council on the Arts. You can stream it on Open Television (OTV).

If you have a project in mind, please get in touch!