Lailanie Gadia

Based in Los Angeles, CA,⠀Lailanie Gadia⠀is a Filipina-American from Guam. She serves as the Operations Director of the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc), a network of over 1,500 Asian American documentary filmmakers and those that work in the documentary field. She has helped produce A-Doc’s Storytelling Initiative - 2020’s #AsianAmCovidStories and 2021/2022’s #AsianAmResilience microdocs and shorts and is proud of the work A-Doc is doing supporting its members through member learning, building community, and its Impact Initiative. She was named a 2023 Documentary New Leader.

Lailanie is currently an associate producer on award-winning filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura’s documentary feature, Third Act, and producing her first narrative feature, Shoots. She has produced several narrative shorts, including As Bitter as Sweet and Dive Bar, which aired onboard Alaska Airlines flights, and continues to consult with filmmakers as they develop their projects. She also assists with fiscal sponsorships and artist services at Visual Communications, home to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, where she has also managed talent coordination, social media, sponsorships, and marketing for the festival over the years.

Lailanie is concurrently an independent financial professional who values financial wellbeing and empowering others through financial literacy. She was part of the 2021-2022 LEAP Impact program, an American Express Leadership Academy of 20 API change makers in the nonprofit community. Prior to A-Doc and Visual Communications, Lailanie was in the banking industry full-time as a mortgage loan closer for six years. She is a proud alumna of Loyola Marymount University, where she graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with minors in Business Administration and Asian Studies, and enjoys returning to participate in panels and events centered around the Asian American community on campus as an API Alumni Association board member.