Film Biography

Hailed by Musical Notes Global (NY) as “a true Renaissance woman,” Aminah Hughes is an Australian writer, director, photographer and musician.

Aminah’s most recent directing project is an 18 minute proof-of-concept for an original television series. Co-written with Dylan Kussman, the film stars Kussman and Allelon Ruggiero and is the first film the actors have appeared in together since playing Richard Cameron and Stephen Meeks, respectively, in Peter Weir’s DEAD POETS SOCIETY.

Aminah spent many years as an assistant director and camera operator before stepping into directing. The founder of Sky Woman Productions, her short projects have screened in numerous festivals throughout the US, Europe and Australia. Her screenplays have won multiple contests and taken her to Austin Film Festival as a semi-finalist. In 2020, Aminah became a member of the Australian Directors Guild and in 2021, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she worked on features for Disney, Pixar, Searchlight Pictures, Warner Bros, Universal, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate, Focus Features, New Line Cinema, Annapurna, Sony Pictures, Netflix and HBO Max, and a variety of television series. She is a member of Women in Film and the LA-based Independent Writers Caucus.

A prolific songwriter and seasoned performer, Aminah has appeared on 14 releases in Australia, Europe and the US. Her vocals have featured on film, TV, and game soundtracks, including the highly anticipated BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: DEADLOCK, based on the popular NBCUniversal television Series. A former radio presenter and theatre actor, Aminah is also a voice over artist, recording audiobooks, commercials, and audio description for film and TV.

To support her creative lifestyle, Aminah worked in a variety of intriguing industries. She was a covert writer of witness statements, working alongside state and federal police, and a researcher at the Department of Justice Crime Prevention Unit.

Her writing focuses on trauma recovery, women’s stories and examining male characters through a feminine lens. Her visual style integrates truth, power and beauty.

View her studio work on IMDB Pro.

Music Biography

When Aminah Hughes steps on stage she does more than fill the room with her honeyed voice. She draws her audience into nostalgia, calling us to remember the beauty and rebelliousness of an analogue world. “Inspiring” and “strong” are words that are often passed around at her performances as she embodies the empowerment we are all aching to feel. Unafraid to touch the rawness, she gives voice to pain, laying it bare, and finding the light in its grace.

An Australian roots artist playing somewhere in between the worlds of folk, alt. country, blues, jazz and spoken word, Aminah is a seasoned performer in Australia and Europe. She performed in the Sydney Opera House at the age of sixteen and has shared stages with Tommy Emmanuel, Declan O’Rourke, KILA, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Waterboys fiddler Steve Wickham. She has been featured in US magazines, appeared on Irish TV, RTÉ and BBC Radio and performed with orchestras as a vocalist and flautist. She has appeared on 14 releases in Australia, Europe and the US, including her solo album, Blue Wooden Boat.

Recorded in Ireland, USA, Australia and Germany, the album features special guests Emmanuel, Wickham and Nashville gospel singers, The McCrary Sisters. Mixed in Nashville and mastered in Memphis by GRAMMY® award winning engineers, it launched her independent label, Blue Wolf Records, securing her a worldwide distribution deal with MGM. The album has earned Aminah a growing list of accolades, including two wins and a nomination at the Independent Music Awards in New York. It has received airplay in Australia, UK and Ireland, and on over 80 stations in 26 states across the US and Canada, charting on thirteen US core and college radio charts, from #30 to #6.

Aminah’s vocals appear on a variety of productions, including Australia’s Who Do You Think You Are? and highly anticipated game, Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, based on the popular NBCUniversal Television Series.

A writer and filmmaker, Aminah has directed music videos for herself and others, which has resulted in screenings at international festivals and premieres with American Songwriter Magazine (Nashville) and Musical Notes Global (New York).

Aminah is the founder of SongCraft Songwriting Workshops, which focus on utilising poetic techniques for strong lyric writing. She has facilitated workshops and song circles at festivals, writers centres, high schools, after school programmes, church groups, prisons, private spaces and via video chat.