CELEBRITY PROFILE--------LEILA JEWEL DJANSI

Leila Djansi was born Leila Afua Djansi on 17 July 1981. Her father was a pilot and her mother a Senior Nursing officer. She grew up in India and Ghana. She attended the Kabore Primary and JSS in the Volta region of Ghana for her primary and junior high education and continued to Mawuli Secondary School for her high school education. Although acting and writing were her hobbies, Leila's career ambition was to become a gynecologist, a plan which later changed when she developed an interest in forensics. Ready to delve into the field of criminology, another career change occurred when she met the Ghanaian actor Sam Odoi who convinced her to write a script for him. Leila was 19 years old when her script Babina was made into a movie by Producer Akwetey Kanyi.
She began her film education at the National Film and Television School but left left Ghana for the United States to continue her Film and Television Degree at Savannah College of Art and Design on an artistic Honors Scholarship. She has remained in the United States since her departure in the late 1990s.

President of the Ghana Library Board Readers club for three years running, her sojourn in the industry began when she came runner-up in a regional beauty pageant in 1998. She tried event management when she promoted and produced mainstream entertainment shows including The Playback Show and Teen Talent. A screenplay, Babina, for producer Akwetey Kanyi resulted in her first screen credit. She took a job with Socrates Safo's Movie Africa Productions where she worked as a Writer/Line Producer while she decided if film-making was the right thing for her. Whilst with the company, she wrote Ghana's first Gay/Lesbian rights screenplay The Sisterhood the film of which propelled the late Ghanaian screen actress Suzzy Williams to stardom. Djansi's writing style differed from the styles adapted by most film makers at the time and this resulted in her working with the state owned Gama Film Company where she wrote and produced Legacy of love.
In the United States, she established Turning Point Pictures, an independent production company geared towards social issue films.
Djansi's first film resulted in her first award. The 2009 worldFest Platinum Award for the film Grass Between My Lips. A gripping story of female circumcision and early marriage, set in a northern Ghana village.
In 2010, her debut feature, I sing of a well was nominated for 11 African Movie Academy Awards. The film won 3 awards: Best Sound, Best Costume and the Jury Special Award for Over-All Best Film. In 2011, Djansi was presented with the BAFTA/LA Pan African Film Festival Choice Award for the film I sing of a well.

Djansi's 2011 film Sinking Sands received 10 African Movie Academy Award nominations, winning first time actress Ama K Abebrese the Best Actress Award. Djansi also won the Best Original Screenplay Award. At the first Ghana Movie Awards in 2011, Djansi's Sinking Sands was the biggest winner, receiving "Best Art Direction", "Best Costume", "Best West African Film" and "Best Picture". Sinking Sands was nominated in 14 categories.
Djansi's work and contribution to the Ghana film industry has been recognized by UNiFEM Ghana, The African Women Development Fund, The Ghana Musicians Association and other social issue minded communities.