What struck me the most when I first met film director and writer Dylan Maranda, is his unwavering dedication to cinema and storytelling. Flipping through old family photo albums, there’s Dylan with his platinum blonde mushroom cut holding a now-vintage camcorder. He recognized his love and affinity for making movies from a very young age. I think that’s rare.
Dylan was born and raised in Vancouver and came up through the Byng Arts theatre program theatre company as an actor. This solid foundation in acting has proved to be a strong asset as a director, as he can empathize with the actors he works with on set. After high school, Dylan pivoted to directing and developed roots in theory, history, and filmmaking techniques at Simon Fraser University’s film program. From there, he became one of the youngest directors in Canada to be signed to commercial directing representation at 23 and has gone on to direct award-winning international commercials— being recognized from the prestigious Cannes Lions (2021), The Young Director Awards (2022), and The Young Guns (2022, 2023), among others.
In recent years, Dylan has revisited his roots in narrative storytelling and directed his first short since university: Master of the House follows a young sommelier struggling to balance and ambition the night an acclaimed critic dines at his restaurant. This story was greatly influenced by his chef father and many of the relationships he’s experienced over his life. Like everything else Dylan brings into this world, this film boasts passion, vulnerability, grit, and beautiful aesthetics. When he’s not working, you can find us having brunch at our favourite neighbourhood nook, Hunnybee.
-Written by Dylan’s partner and local curator Andrea Valentine-Lewis
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Which ‘hood are you in?
I live in Chinatown on Union Street, but you’ll find me frequenting Mount Pleasant, Commercial Drive, and Kits— the neighbourhood I grew up in.
What do you do?
I am a director, writer, and occasional photographer who works primarily in the commercial directing space. Slowly but surely I hope to find myself directing narrative more!
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on writing a feature film, about to start a photography book project, and am always bouncing in and out of commercial directing projects!
Where can we find your work?
You can find my work on my website or Instagram.
