Uzbek American filmmaker, illustrator, and writer Elvira Ibragimova started out as an architect. Feeling unsatisfied, she found improv comedy and made her way into film.
“I was wanting to live and breathe my hobby [comedy improv], which wasn’t paying, and so at some point I was, like, ‘I think I need to try this,’” she said.
Soon after, Ibragimova was working with Nickelodeon like Shimmer and Shine creator Farnaz Esnaashari-Charmatz. Now, Ibragimova is joining the ranks of hit web series producer Issa Rae with her upcoming series We’re Doing Good.
Elvira Ibragimova leaves architecture for film
Right out of school in 2013, Ibragimova landed a position at the prestigious New York firm SHoP Architects. She had graduated with a master’s in architecture from Syracuse University.
“For a few years, it was just a blast. I was totally convinced that it was the exact right place for me,” said Ibragimova.
During her third year with the firm, a colleague inspired Ibragimova to get involved with improv. He said he was taking classes to improve his manner with clients. She started spending more time writing comedy than designing at the office after hours. Ibragimova spent a year secretly cultivating her comedy hobby. Eventually, she decided to switch careers and train to be a film director.
“I was 30, and my immigrant brain was like ‘This is crazy,’” she recalled. “‘Four years of film school at 30? That’s not why your parents left Uzbekistan.’”
In 2017, she left her established career in architecture to pursue a year-long directing program at the Chicago-based Harold Ramis Film School. During this time, Ibragimova created the mini film Dingus Wishes.
Out of school, Viacom’s Viewfinder Emerging Director’s Program offered Ibragimova a 2019 fellowship in Los Angeles. She shadowed TV directors and won the opportunity to direct an episode of Nickelodeon’s superhero show Danger Force in March 2020.
Elvira Ibragimova began art in childhood
Ibragimova immigrated to the United States with her family at 10 years old. She “is a half Jewish, half Muslim refugee, hailing from sunny, Soviet-era Uzbekistan,” her Coverfly profile lists. She speaks both Russian and English.
As a child, Ibragimova loved to draw. According to her website, “has been doodling her whole life, even back in Uzbekistan where they didn’t have the little erasers on the end of the pencils.”
Initially, her childhood interest led her to earn her bachelor’s in art history (and planning and public policy) from Rutgers University in 2009. Her design talent soon served her well. Ibragimova next worked on a team at ShoP Architects that made the initial designs for the Golden State Warriors basketball team’s San Francisco arena pavilion. Now, her eye for art and design supports her as a filmmaker.
Elvira Ibragimova to release web series “We’re Doing Good”
Ibragimova developed the concept for We’re Doing Good in the Moving Picture Institute’s Comedy Workshop. The upcoming comedy web series stars Jonathan Braylock of The Astronaut and Emily Pendergast of Veep. Meanwhile, Ibragimova both wrote and directed the series, which wrapped up at the end of August.
The series follows a young couple that comedically fail at trying to “do good.” However, they often worsen the very causes they are working towards.
“Nora and Miles set out to make the world a better place, whether the world wants it or not,” states the official synopsis.
We’re Doing Good’s storyline is mysteriously connected with a comedic pile of trash. The series will span six episodes.
“Two years ago, [my partner and cinematographer] Sam and I had a VERY bad day trying and failing to compost a pile of frozen melting trash,” Ibragimova wrote in an Instagram post celebrating the final shoot. “We ended the shoot last night with this pile of shit behind us, the very pile of shit that inspired this whole thing.”
Peruse Ibragimova’s film reels, artwork, and designs at her website elviraibragimova.com
