May Abdalla is a highly acclaimed director and artist known for using physical experience, technology and storytelling in ground-breaking ways. Her work brings poetic insight and meaningful interactivity to important contemporary issues with the aim of deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. After graduating with honors in Social and Political Science from Cambridge University, she directed a number of character- led documentary films internationally which were screened by the BBC, Channel 4 and Al Jazeera and also selected for Semaine De Le Critique at Cannes.

She co-founded Anagram, a multi-award winning studio to explore the use of immersive technology in non-fiction storytelling. Their work spans many forms ranging from a blindfolded experience about being lost that took place in a 6000 sq ft sensory set (Door Into The Dark, Winner of Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes Award 2015) to an augmented reality journey through a park leading you to uncover the intelligence of plants and the limitations of humans (Messages to A Post Human Earth, International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam, Immersive Non-Fiction, 2021).

Her work has been presented at the Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia on three occasions (Nominated for Best Interactive 2021 and 2018 and Best of VR 2019) She was awarded theGrand Jury Award for Best VR in 2021, and the Venice Immersive Achievement Prize in 2024, as co-director along with Barry Gene Murphy for the Playing with Reality collection in 2021 and 2024 respectively.