Bravo was born in New York City, the daughter of Ana María Ford and Rafael Ángel Landers.[4] Her parents, who are tailors, are both from Colón, Panama.[5] Her mother enlisted in the U.S. military when Bravo was an infant.[5] From the time she was three months old to a teenager, she grew up between Colón and an Army base in Panama City, Panama,[5] until her family moved back to the United States.[2] She spent time going back and forth between the United States and Panama throughout her childhood.[6] When she was 12, her family moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn.[5]
Several years after college, she moved to Los Angeles, worked as a stylist and produced small theater productions before she was approached by a cinematographer who offered assistance with filmmaking.[5]
Career
After graduating from college Bravo worked as a stylist and wardrobe designer.[2]
Bravo got her start writing and directing a series of short films. Her first film, Eat, starred Katherine Waterston and Brett Gelman[5] and debuted at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival and was picked up by Vice. The film told the story of a woman who is locked out of her apartment and meets an odd neighbor.[9][10]
In 2015, Bravo shot a featurette on Victoria Beckham for Glamour's 25th Anniversary Women of the Year Awards called "Victoria Beckham Is Living a Life Filled with Style and Grace".[13][14]
In 2016, Bravo released the short film, Hard World for Small Things, a live-action virtual reality film that was a "day in the life" depiction of South Central. The project was grant funded by Eve Cohen and James Kaelan of Seed and Spark.[15] The film was inspired by the death of a cousin, visiting from Panama, who in the summer of 1999 was asphyxiated by the police in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn is a case of mistaken identity.[16] It was shot using GoPro cameras for the virtual reality company Wevr, and was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and the AFI Festival Los Angeles.[17][18] The title of the film was inspired by a line of dialog in the 1955 film noir film, The Night of the Hunter,[3] and marked a distinct departure in theme, as it focused on race and politics.[18]
In addition to creating her own work, Bravo directed season 1 episode 9, "Juneteenth", of the FX television show Atlanta, which stars and was created by Donald Glover, as well as season 3 episode 5, "Bertie's Birthday", of the Netflix television show Love, which was created by and stars Paul Rust.[21]
Bravo's latest film, Zola, was directed and co-written by Bravo, along with playwright Jeremy O. Harris.[22] The film is based on a 148-tweet thread by Detroit waitress Aziah "Zola" Wells about a trip she took to Florida with a sex worker named Jessica.[5][23]Zola had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Award.[24]
In 2022, Bravo was one of nine directors commissioned to design a series of rooms at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art for the exhibition In America: An Anthology of Fashion.[25][26]
Personal life
Bravo speaks Spanish fluently and is Latina.[6][27] She is also Jewish.[5]
In December 2015, Bravo married her long-time boyfriend, actor Brett Gelman.[2][28] Gelman and Bravo met in New York City while working on a New York Lotto commercial.[29] In 2016, they resided in Los Angeles.[18] They divorced in 2018.[30]