NIKITA MANDHANI
JOURNALIST and FILMMAKER
(Video|Writing|Audience Engagement)
I make videos, news and features
Check out some of my films
And I write
"They grew up in countries where they could drive. Then they moved to Saudi Arabia" for
The Lily (Washington Post)
And take pictures
This is me, in a nutshell
Hi! I'm Nikita, a journalist, filmmaker, audience strategist and media trainer currently based in India. My work has appeared in The Washington Post, BBC News, NBC News, AJ+, Vox.com, USA Today, and Business Insider. I specialise in making daily news and feature videos, producing and editing short documentaries, reaching underserved audiences, and developing new video formats. I run in-person and online training workshops on all-things-video and audience engagement. I'm also a recipient of the Solutions Storytelling Project Asia fellowship (2025) as part of which I'm making a short social impact documentary.
Most recently, I was a Senior Video Producer at the BBC where I led a team of video journalists and producers to drive the overall news and feature video coverage for the BBC's website and social platforms from India. I also launched a new YouTube channel for BBC's Indian audiences from ground up. In this role, I won a Bronze in WAN-IFRA 2023 under the Best Use of Video category for a short documentary series that I directed and produced. I also founded In Sync, a column for the Video Consortium, exploring innovation in non-fiction video.
Previously, I worked with the BBC's 42 World Service language teams to produce digital and social videos. I ran trainings on video journalism for journalists and producers around the world and launched new storytelling formats for different digital platforms. I won a Silver in WAN-IFRA 2022 for my Instagram reels project covering an Indian state election. I also won a BBC award in December 2021 for my work on increasing BBC's female audience numbers using new ways of digital storytelling. I want to make news more inclusive, in every way possible, and most things I do are rooted in that passion.
Before joining the BBC, I worked as a Video Producer at The Washington Post in Washington DC. Most of my time at The Post was spent on the Emerging News Products team, working on bespoke projects for Snapchat and Apple News. I spearheaded the Between two cultures video series for Post's millennial women publication, the Lily News, as part of which I told stories of daughters of immigrants in the US.
I worked at Vox.com and USA Today in Washington DC where I covered the 2016 US presidential elections among other general news and feature assignments as part of internships.
I was one of six recipients of CNN's Diversity Fellowship 2017, and was one of 15 journalists selected to attend Poynter's Minority Writers' Workshop in November 2017. I have reported from and worked in different parts of India, the United States, Germany, Kenya and Zambia.
I have a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School, specialising in social justice and documentary filmmaking. Before venturing into journalism, I worked as a software engineer for two years.
Outside of work, I spend a lot of time reading books, practising yoga, knitting, solo travelling, making bookmarks, and finding new obsessions (the most recent ones being indoor climbing and strength training). I'm a PADI certified Open Water Diver and have been stung by sea urchins in Zanzibar and sea anemone in Thailand. All my other dives have been, thankfully, devoid of accidents.
Here's my showreel and my resume. Feel free to email me at nikita.md@gmail.com if you want to know more about my work or if you'd like to collaborate on future projects.
CONTACT
Majed Abdulraheem is a Syrian chef at Foodhini. This picture was one of a series of pictures published with the lead story on the front page of Washington Post's Metro Newspaper on Sep. 9, 2017
Melissa “Mem” Frabotta’s nam khao lettuce wraps are stuffed with crispy rice and rolled in lettuce leaves at Foodhini in Washington. Published in Washington Post.
Karma Kitchen D.C. Coordinator Krishna Desar serves a meal for a guest during their October operation.
A still from the women's march in Washington D.C. in January 2017. Published in The Mary Sue.
Overlooking the Indian Ocean from a cafe in Bali. Published on my personal blog: Read Stuff With Me.
One of a series of pictures of La Perla, Puerto Rico. Published in Medill Reports.
A still from the women's march in Washington D.C. in January 2017. Published in The Mary Sue.