Sanji (director)

Sanji Senaka is a director. Sanji won an MTV Award (earning Mary J. Blige her very first MTV Award for Best R&B Video for "No More Drama"). He's been nominated four other times for MTV Awards, including Best Breakthrough Video for his innovative work on Maxwell's "This Woman's Work". Sanji was also nominated for MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction and the Grammy Award for Best Music Video for "Everything Is Everything" by Lauryn Hill. He has directed numerous award-winning (and nominated) music videos for Nicki Minaj, David Guetta, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Common, Jennifer Lopez, Seal, The Pharcyde, Tori Amos, and more. He is credited for having a singular and unique signature visual style.

He's created his music videos with the collaboration of several Academy Award-winning cinematographers, such as Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Darius Khondji (Se7en, Panic Room) and Jeff Cronenweth (Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fight Club).

Numerous studios, such as Universal, 20th Century Fox, and MGM, have all sought Sanji to direct major studio films. For example, he was originally considered to direct the horror film Mirrors for Regency Enterprises.[1] Jennifer Lopez recommended Sanji to direct her hip-hop opera/musical film "Carmen" for Universal, written by Baz Luhrmann's writing partner, Craig Pearce. Universal sidelined the project, however. In 2019, Sanji directed an episode of Star Trek: Short Treks entitled "Ask Not," which was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Short.