Kaya Caouki

Class of 2024
Majors in Visual & Media Studies (Cinematic Arts) and Political Science

I’m Kaya and I’m a senior at Duke, majoring in Visual & Media Studies (Cinematic Arts concentration) and Political Science. I’m interested in pursuing a career in film and have experience working in both the scripted and unscripted space across various branches of the industry, from talent management to development. I’m eager to combine my academic interests of film and politics to create authentic content with underlying tones of social justice — projects that connect with an audience and make an impact. I’m originally from London and have lived in a myriad of different cities these past few years, including Paris, Los Angeles, and most recently, Berlin, working on developing two documentaries alongside Daniel Karslake for the summer.

Favorite Class: My favorite class at Duke has been Screenwriting with Professor Neal Bell. I've been writing scripts in my free time since I was 14 years old, so I was naturally excited to enter my first formal educational experience centered around the craft and write a full feature-length screenplay. Each class consisted of table reads of the previous week’s work, and hearing the dialogue I’d written performed out loud was incredibly helpful in realizing how natural the words sound and flow off the page and furthermore, allowed me to better create distinct voices for my characters. In addition, the class focused on analyzing a selection of films and these in-class discussions with Professor Bell offered a unique and nuanced insight into the creation create an emotional impact with an audience.