Desiree Akhavan finds dry comedy in people struggling to say what they want, especially when desire comes with expectations about who they ought to be. We rate the frankness, and her willingness to let embarrassment remain uncomfortable.
Fi1m perspective
Desiree Akhavan keeps returning to people making an awkward job of explaining themselves. In Appropriate Behavior (2015), her feature debut as writer, director and star, Shirin is a bisexual Iranian-American woman finding her way after a break-up. The deadpan humour is a good fit for that uncertainty. The film follows the web series The Slope (2010–2012), co-created with Ingrid Jungermann, and establishes the frankness about female desire that remains central to her work.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) moves to teenagers in conversion therapy, keeping a measured tone rather than delivering a lecture. The Bisexual (2018) puts Akhavan back on screen as well as writing and directing, with bisexuality as its subject. Producer and co-writer Cecilia Frugiuele is another recurring collaborator. Across these works, the interest is in people discovering that the available answers do not necessarily explain their own lives, particularly when adults are supposed to be supplying them.
In Hacks (2021), Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are excellent as two women who make a difficult job harder for each other. We found their scenes together moving because the comedy makes that difficulty matter. It is a funny, rewarding series, though the writing sometimes presses their generational differences too hard. We are more interested in what these women do to each other than in what generation each is meant to represent. Akhavan’s interest in awkward company makes her a sensible fit, but an episodic directing credit is not grounds for attributing either the performances or the programme’s weaknesses solely to her.
Her television directing also includes Tiny Beautiful Things (2023) and Overcompensating (2025). We would be particularly curious about another work she writes as well as directs, because her choice of subject is part of what interests us. Female desire receives frank, unembarrassed attention in her work, even when the people experiencing it are anything but comfortable. Begin with Hacks for Smart and Einbinder, allowing a little patience for the writing when it insists on explaining their differences.
Biography
Desiree Akhavan is an American filmmaker, writer and actress. She was born on 27 December 1984 in New York City and studied film and theatre at Smith College before completing a graduate degree in film directing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
She wrote, directed and starred in the feature Appropriate Behavior (2014). Akhavan directed The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. She created, wrote, directed and starred in the series The Bisexual (2018).
Akhavan has directed episodes of the series Hacks (2021), Ramy (2020), Monsterland (2020), Tiny Beautiful Things (2023) and Overcompensating (2025). Her acting credits include the role of Chandra in Girls (2015) and Sara in Creep 2 (2017).
