Biography

Born in Olongapo City, Philippines, and raised in San Diego and Houston, Kayla Abuda Galang is a filmmaker drawing from her environment and communities to tell immersive and textured character-driven stories. With a grounded storytelling approach, she finds humor in idiosyncrasies and mundane details.

Her latest film, When You Left Me on That Boulevard, received the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and the Special Jury Award for Vision at the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Her film Learning Tagalog With Kayla (2021) premiered at SXSW, received an Audience Award, and went on to screen at festivals such as Palm Springs, Indie Memphis, Encounters, and Reel Asian. She is currently developing two feature films: '06-'07, a coming-of-age comedy set in mid-2000s southeast San Diego, and On Earth as it is in Heaven, a comedy about familial grief set in present-day Houston.