Runako Celina is a multi-award-winning filmmaker and investigative journalist whose work turns complex global stories into culture-shaping journalism and storytelling.

She is best known for Death in Dubai (2025, BBC Eye), a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the exploitation of Ugandan women in Dubai. The documentary reached more than 60 million views across YouTube and social media, won an RTS Television Journalism Award, and was accompanied by a Gracie and Prix Europa-winning World of Secrets podcast.

Another of her widely shared investigations, Racism for Sale (2022, BBC Africa Eye), exposed a Chinese video-making industry exploiting African children. The award-winning documentary sparked international action and helped establish her reputation for ambitious reporting on culture, identity, technology and global power.

Her journalism moves between communities and platforms, sparking conversations everywhere from the Financial Times to The Shade Room. Her creative practice now extends into fiction, with Jacket, a genre-bending short film centred on a British-Caribbean family, made for Channel 4 and marking her scripted directorial debut.

Selected for BAFTA Breakthrough 2026, supported by Netflix, she brings an unconventional approach to journalism and filmmaking. Years spent living and working in China, her knowledge of Mandarin Chinese and a rich mix of cultural influences have informed her fluid relationship with genre, creating work that moves between the political and playful, serious and celebratory.