Mehreen Jabbar

Mehreen Jabbar is a film and television director and producer based in New York City. She has been working since 1994. Her father is the media figure Javed Jabbar, who has worked as a filmmaker and in advertising and has also served as a senator and cabinet minister. Her aunt is Beo Zafar, and the singer, actor and director Yasir Akhtar is her cousin.

She grew up in Karachi and earned a BA at Saint Joseph's College there. She then completed a two-year film programme at the University of California, Los Angeles, finishing in 1993 with a certificate in film, television and video. After returning to Pakistan she directed and produced serials under the banner of TasVeer Productions, and almost all of them were well received. Her 2008 serial Doraha won her the Lux Style Award for Best TV Director.

She made her name in cinema with Ramchand Pakistani (2008). In 2026 she directs Gulbahar, with Emmad Irfani, Komal Meer and Shahood Alvi. It is on air on this guide.

Her short films and serials include Marhoom Colonel Ki Betiyaan, Beauty Parlor and Daam. For Ramchand Pakistani she received a Global Film Initiative grant. The film premiered in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released in cinemas in Pakistan, India and the United Kingdom in 2008–09. It won the FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics and the Audience Award at the Fribourg Film Festival in Switzerland.

Gulbahar (2026) on air now on HUM TV. Mehreen Jabbar directed it; the serial is written by Aliya Bukhari. Also in the cast: Sanam Saeed, Emmad Irfani and Komal Meer.