Ryan Njenga is a multidisciplinary Kenyan-American artist and filmmaker. His clients have included Dirty Hit, Capitol Records, PBS, KC Repertory Theatre, and Convulse Records, through his production companies NJENGA FILMS and MUKAMI MEDIA. His work centers on world-building, emotional resonance, psychological depth and visual aesthetic, often shaped by a dreamy worldview. He explores themes of identity, intimacy, finality, and the inner-world we navigate in a post-social media landscape.

“Narrative, for me, isn’t always linear. I like stories that loop, haunt, drift — like dreams you can’t quite explain. My work is full of references, allusions, and echoes. I don’t want to hand the audience answers. I want them to feel like they’ve entered something — a room, a memory, a headspace.

I’m a Kenyan-American artist, raised between different versions of self. It's how I approach the films I make and process the world: slow, layered, emotional. 

I pull from art history, film, architecture, color theory, music, fashion — not to copy, but to speak in layers. I like that tension, between past and present, high and low, beauty and decay.

At the end of the day, I’m just trying to make spaces people can sit inside and feel something real. Worlds where the quiet kids, the weird kids, the grieving kids, the ones still figuring it out, can recognize themselves. That’s the work.”

Resume is available on request.

SELECTED PRESS:

• Interview with Shuttlecock Magazine (2020) - Nothing Makes Sense, and That's What Makes Sense - A Conversation with Ryan Njenga

• Interview with VoyageKC (2021)

• Premiere Article for GORGEOUS (2021) - Gorgeous reminds us that the fight for racial equality is more than just a trend

• WildSound Interview for GORGEOUS (2021)

• The Pitch Interview - Lights, camera, funding? (2022)

• Interview with CanvasRebel Magazine (2022)

• Interview with KCUR (2023) - Kansas City women and queer filmmakers take 'A Seat At The Table' in new showcase

• Interview with The Bridge (2024) - BoomBox Creative and Njenga Films: Elevating The Artist Ecosystem

• Alternative Press article (2024) - The first single […] comes with a nostalgic video, directed by Ryan Njenga, that has them reminiscing on their 2000s-era upbringing.”

• Northern Transmissions article (2024) - “The video which taps into sunny, starry-eyed nostalgia of […] the 2000s and follows bandmates […] as they find love at a rose-tinted house party.”

• Gurl World UK - “The accompanying music video is as much a statement as the song itself. Shot in what feels like a neon-soaked fever dream, it draws on the aesthetics of early MTV but subverts them in ways that feel fresh and relevant. There’s a sense of chaotic joy throughout, but it’s tinged with a bittersweet awareness that nothing lasts forever […] Yet, this impermanence is embraced rather than mourned.”

• “It feels like the director created a world for each of the videos he’s done for the indie rockers, where it seems as though they all take place in different parts of a shared universe […] ‘Ryan cares about everything and has curated a team of people who cares.’”

  SELECTED AWARDS:

• Runner-up for Best Filmmaker (Artistic) in Kansas City by The Pitch

• Semi-Finalist for Best Filmmaker at the Kansas City People’s Choice Awards

• WISH YOU WERE HERE: Officially screened at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. ‘Best Actress’ at the Tokyo International Short Film Festival & ‘Best Writer’ at the Venice Full Shot Film Festival

• SWITZER LOFTS: ‘Best Local Film’ & ‘Top Acting Performance’ at the Kansas City Underground Film Festival

• circles*: Officially screened at the Kansas City International Film Festival

• ERYKAH: ‘Audience Choice Award for Best Film’ at the First Fridays Film Festival

• GORGEOUS: ‘Best Sound & Music’ at the Black Feedback Film Festival