Associate Professor of Professional Practice
Rechna Varma is an award-winning creative producer, executive and educator originally from Toronto, Canada. As a filmmaker, her narrative work captures the disfunction of female relationships with the goal of illuminating our quiet, in between moments.
Rechna’s feature film work includes producing the arthouse horror film DO NOT DISTURB (2023) which premiered at the Austin Film Festival, the film went on to win best lead performance at Phoenix Fearcon & Atlanta Horror Festival, New York City Horror Fest, Best Cinematography at New York City Horror Fest and Best Psychological Thriller at the Atlanta Horror Festival; CATCH AND RELEASE (2019), a thriller-based adaptation of the Pulitzer nominated play “Keely and Du”; and MARGARITA (2012) which won the Best Feature Award at Inside Out Toronto and Creteil International Women Film Festival in Creteil, France.
Rechna’s directorial debut, GOODBYE (2022) was a semi-finalist at the New York International Women Festival, semi-finalist at the Brussels World Film Festival, and official selection for the Shorts Miami International Film Festival, Canadian Shorts & International Shorts Film Festival among others. She is currently in post-production for her feature film HELLO DARLING.
Her scripted television work as the director of development at Sphere Media Plus includes Emmy nominated and CSA winner 19-2 (CTV), THIS LIFE (CBC), and BAD BLOOD (Netflix). Rechna also has extensive producing experience working in lifestyle television. Series include SMART WOMAN’S SURVIVAL GUIDE (W network), PARTY MAMA’S (Slice network), THE UNSELLABLES (HGTV). During her tenure as the executive in charge of production & post at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto she cultivated talent and over saw production for 100+ productions per year and managed close to twenty documentary films at any given time during her term as an associate producer at the National Film Board of Canada.
As a writer, Rechna was in development with the studio Entertainment One (THE ROOKIE, DESIGNATED SURVIVOR, YELLOW JACKETS) for her series LOVE RULES. The pilot was shortlisted as a semi-finalist for Content London in 2019 and gained Rechna an invitation to the NETFLIX-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative Professional Development Program in 2020. The script went on to win an award at the 2020 Panel Presentation & Juried Script Competition for the University Film and Video Association (UFVA) Conference. She won Best Script at Canes Fest 2024 for writing the short film A BIRTHDAY TO REMEMBER.
As an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at the University of Miami, Rechna’s teaching focuses on the business track of motion picture. Her courses include Designing Innovation, Interactive Media Business Essentials, Creative Producing, The Independent Producer, Business of Motion Pictures, and Motion Pictures Studio. Rechna teaches both undergraduate and graduate students in the department of Cinematic Arts. She is the head of the producing track for the department’s MFA in Motion Pictures program.
Her fellowships and awards include: 2024 Faculty Learning Community (FLC), 2023 School of Communication Creativity and Research Grant, 2023 Junior Faculty Grant, 2023 Relief Funding by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship (OVPRS), 2020 Excellence in Civic Engagement Award, 2018 Faculty Learning Community Fellowship and 2018 NATPE Education Faculty Fellowship. Rechna was appointed to the UFVF (University of Film Video Foundation) advisory board and is now a trustee, and she was a committee member for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant program (CREATE Grant).
Professor Varma collaborates with the University of Miami Herbert Business School on executive education covering authentic storytelling, design thinking and effective communication. Clients have included: VISA, Liberty Mutual and NBC/Telemundo.
She earned her BA from the University of Windsor, an MBA from the University of Toronto and a Global Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland with a global curriculum.
Rechna lets her curiosity lead her and uses her gift of gab to get to the heart of a good story.