Neasa Ní Chianáin trained at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, and worked as a freelance Art Director on Irish feature film and television projects, such as ‘All Soul’s Day’, Angela’s Ashes’, ‘A Love Divided’ and the BBC series, ‘Rebel Heart’. 

Neasa started directing documentaries in 2001 with ‘No Man’s Land’, a critically acclaimed film about the asylum process in Ireland. She has directed television docs, short docs and three feature documentaries including the award-winning Irish Film Board funded feature length observational documentary, ‘Frank Ned & Busy Lizzie’, which won Best Feature Documentary at The Celtic Film Festival 2004, and was sold to broadcasters around the world. Her next film, ‘Fairytale of Kathmandu’ world premiered at IDFA 2007, in the Silver Wolf Competition. It was subsequently invited to 25 more international Festivals including Seattle (North American Premiere), Edinburgh (UK premiere) DocAviv, Durban, New York and San Francisco GLBT Festival, and won 3 international awards. After this, she directed ‘The Stranger’, which premiered in the prestigious Semaine de la Critique Competition in Locarno Film Festival in August 2014. Her latest film, “School Life (In Loco Parentis)” had its World Premiere in the Feature Documentary Competition at IDFA in November 2016.