TJ Ali is an award-winning filmmaker and storyteller from Chicago’s South Side with over a decade of experience leading photo/video creative campaigns for Netflix, VICE TV, and Paramount/CBS. Most recently, serving as Creative Director for MrBeast main philanthropy channel at Beast Industries reaching an audience over 500M+.
His 2019 short film An American Boy won Best Short at the Black Alphabet Film Festival. The Lifted—short film created through winning the embraceLA John Singleton Film initiative—won Best Comedic Short at the 2022 Micheaux Film Festival after premiering at the Pan African Film Festival. In 2025, his debut feature Operation: Aunties, starring Tisha Campbell, Melissa De Sousa, and Amiyah Scott, premiered at #1 on AMC Networks’ ALLBLK.tv Ali was awarded the Denis Diderot Grant to attend the Château d'Orquevaux artist residency in France (Fall 2025) and later, the Casa Lü Writer’s Residency in Mexico City (Spring 2026). Ali’s films have premiered at over a dozen festivals around the world. Ali is currently producing a short film Except Edwin in Accra, Ghana (Fall 2026).