Hailed by Musical Notes Global (New York) as “a true Renaissance woman” Aminah Hughes is an Australian writer, director, photographer and musician.

Film Biography

Aminah is an Australian writer/director with a focus on trauma recovery, women’s stories and examining male characters through a feminine lens. She has worked as a Research Assistant at the Department of Justice Crime Prevention Unit and a covert writer of witness statements, working alongside state and federal police. She spent many years on set as an Assistant Director, before establishing Sky Woman Productions in 2019.

Aminah’s projects have screened in numerous festivals throughout the US, Europe and Australia. In 2020, she was accepted as a member of the Australian Directors Guild and in 2021, she moved to Los Angeles, where she has worked on features for Disney, Pixar, Searchlight Pictures, Warner Bros, Universal, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures and Netflix. In 2024 she became an invited member of the LA-based, Independent Writers Caucus. She has worked in Australia and the US as a Camera Operator in film, music videos and live concerts.

Aminah’s US directorial debut, a collaboration with American actor and musician, Dylan Kussman, premiered in September, 2022. A powerful piece written from the perspective of parents who have lost a child to gun violence, What Are We Fighting For (If Ain’t Love)? draws attention to the CDC’s determination that “firearms are now the number one cause of death for children in the United States” and acts as an offering to the families who are suffering, to give voice to those who need to be heard now more than ever.

She is currently in post-production with Kussman on their co-write WE CAN NEVER GO BACK, directed by Aminah and starring Kussman and Allelon Ruggiero. An 18 minute proof of concept, it is the first film the actors have appeared in together since playing Richard Cameron and Stephen Meeks, respectively, in Peter Weir’s DEAD POETS SOCIETY.

View her studio work on IMDB Pro.

Music Biography

When Aminah Hughes steps on stage she does more than fill the room with her honeyed voice. She draws her audience into nostalgia, calling us to remember the beauty and rebelliousness of an analogue world. “Inspiring” and “strong” are words that are often passed around at her performances as she embodies the empowerment we are all aching to feel. Unafraid to touch the rawness, she gives voice to pain, laying it bare, and finding the light in its grace.

An Australian roots artist playing somewhere in between the worlds of folk, alt. country, blues, jazz and spoken word, Aminah is a seasoned performer in Australia and Europe. She performed in the Sydney Opera House at the age of sixteen and has shared stages with Tommy Emmanuel, Declan O’Rourke, KILA, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Waterboys fiddler Steve Wickham. She has been featured in US magazines, appeared on Irish TV, RTÉ and BBC Radio and performed with orchestras as a vocalist and flautist. She appeared on 11 albums in Australia and Europe before producing her debut solo album, Blue Wooden Boat.

Recorded in Ireland, USA, Australia and Germany, the album features special guests Emmanuel, Wickham and Nashville gospel singers, The McCrary Sisters. Mixed in Nashville and mastered in Memphis by GRAMMY® award winning engineers, it launched her independent label, Blue Wolf Records, securing her a worldwide distribution deal with MGM. The album has earned Aminah a growing list of accolades, including two wins and a nomination at the Independent Music Awards in New York. It has received airplay in Australia, UK and Ireland, and on over 80 stations in 26 states across the US and Canada, charting on thirteen US core and college radio charts, from #30 to #6.

Aminah’s vocals appear on a variety of productions, including Australia’s Who Do You Think You Are? and highly anticipated game, Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, based on the popular NBCUniversal Television Series.

A writer and filmmaker, Aminah has directed music videos for herself and others, which has resulted in screenings at international festivals and premieres with American Songwriter Magazine (Nashville) and Musical Notes Global (New York).

Aminah is the founder of SongCraft Songwriting Workshops, which focus on utilising poetic techniques for strong lyric writing. She has facilitated workshops and song circles at festivals, writers centres, high schools, after school programmes, church groups, prisons, private spaces and via video chat.