Our Team
This whole thing got started in 2007 and as rewarding as our history has been, it’s the future we’re most excited about. Each member of our team is here not only because they’re ridiculously talented – but because they love what they do.
Read more about the team
Shoaib Iqbal
Arts Manager and Educationist, Festival Director, Film Collector, Reader, Traveler, Foodie
Shoaib Iqbal has an experience of near 13 years of working as a teacher, theatre director, workshop trainer, festival director, youth performance facilitator and inter-disciplinary artist. He taught first “Theater in Education” course in Pakistan at Ali Institute of Education, Lahore for near 3 years.
Shoaib has developed Arts Education integration workshops which are unique in Pakistan; and has been attended by the staff of several major public and private schools like Aitchison College, Beaconhouse, LGS, LACAS, Learning Alliance, The City School and others.
Among various art projects he has created over the years, one of the most important is Lahore International Children’s Film Festival, the first and largest children’s film festival in Pakistan which he leads as Festival Director.
Shoaib was selected in 2006 as Kennedy Center Fellow at Devos Institute of Arts Management; one of the most competitive and prestigious arts management program in the world. He not only studied arts management and worked in the Center on projects; but also attended many arts education workshops for teachers the Center offered.
In 2009, Shoaib received Endeavour Executive Award from the Australian government and became a Commonwealth Fellow. Through his fellowship; he worked with Melbourne Intl. Children’s Film Festival and the University of Melbourne on theatre and arts management projects.
He has worked as a consultant on projects with national and international organizations including UNICEF and Groupe Development. With UNICEF, he served as communication consultant of Child-Friendly School project for 3 years.
Shoaib has been travelling extensively for many international art projects to India, Canada, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Thailand, Malaysia, UK, USA, UAE and Australia.
Shoaib holds a post-graduate in Arts Management from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington D.C. and a diploma in International Development from Eastside Institute, New York City.
Awais Shafiq
Awais has seven years of experience in nonprofit sector and has earned master’s degree in Political Science from University of Sargodha. He joined The Little Art as a volunteer right after his university and then was hired as Project Coordinator. He is currently working as Project Manager and leading the project “ArtBeat – National Child Art Competition and Exhibitions”. His work has been supported by Govt. of Pakistan, EU Commission, UNESCO and US Department of State. Under his leadership; the project has become Pakistan largest creative project, engaging more then 8,000 children every year from across Pakistan. He also looks after areas such as school coordination and liaison for TLA projects. Currently he is pursuing his Ph.D in Political Science.
Umair Mushtaq
Elocutionist, Traveler, Theatre Practitioner, Social Activist, Bohemian
Umair Mushtaq is a rising leader, leading through his passion for arts. Co-Founder of Tamasha, a project of The Little Art, Mushtaq has been part of different major projects in Pakistan that aims to empower youth through theater and performing arts in order to address key issues on peace, conflict resolution and diversity.
Born and raised in Pakistan, Mushtaq is pursuing a Master of Philosophy degree in Cultural Studies at the National College of Arts Lahore (NCA). He works as Senior Manager Development at The Little Art, where he is responsible for planning, organizing, managing staff, and lead projects.
Umair Mushtaq was one of a group of volunteers across Pakistan that successfully ran the One Million Signature Campaign to implement the Article 25A in Pakistan’s constitution, which says, “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children.” Through his work in Education, Peace and Gender Equality using art forms, especially performing arts, he was able to secure the funds from UNESCO Pakistan and UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) to start the YESPeace Pakistan chapter with partners to promote peace and empower youth and successfully conduct a six-day performing arts capacity building workshop for youth.
Umair also spoke at the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) Panel on “The Role of Youth and Culture in Shaping a Peaceful and Sustainable Future” and was selected as a Young Leader from Pakistan in the Swedish Institute’s “Young Connectors of the Future.” Additionally, he directed a traveling documentary theater play, “SEVEN,” on Women’s Empowerment in Lahore, Pakistan, by the Swedish Embassy in Pakistan, U.N. Women Pakistan and EU-Pakistan.
Umair has been travelling extensively for many international art and leadership projects to Canada, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and Srilanka.
Humera Khan
Designer, Free-lancer, Writer, Self-disciplining environmentalist, Photographer, Foodie, Loves Reading, Music, Dancing, Happy people, & DIY projects
Humera Khan is a marketing enthusiast turned landscape designer running Avante Garde. She started volunteering in high school and since then has been involved in multiple national and international projects. She was the creative director for YL Pakistan – country chapter of Youth Leader; an official project of the UN decade of education for sustainable development 2005-2014 UNESCO. She has also worked in collaboration with Amnesty International (Pakistan) on various youth-based initiatives. Humera is a visuals enthusiast; anything and everything regarding movies, theatre, advertisements, photography, and story-telling get her drooling. She writes extensively, goes photo-walking frequently and paints occasionally. She loves her husband & partner Hassan, her new-born Zoe, and food but is not sure about the order.
Irfan Fayyaz
Festival Manager, Festival Programmer, Filmmaker, Trainer, Photographer, Videographer, Traveller, Editor.
Irfan is a multi-talented guy and works in different capacity for organization projects, such as Festival Manager, Festival Programmer, Incharge Post Production, Photographer and Videographer.
Started his career in 2007 as a non-linear editor. He has worked and delivered various projects for Government and Semi-Government departments. He has a great command in animation, advertising and entertainment projects and is able to take projects from concept to screen.
His strong technical abilities merged with creativity helps him to create an amazing outcome with a skilled creative team. He joined The Little Art in 2012 as part-time film festival programmer. During his professional association with The Little Art helped him to continue as full-time festival programmer.
His work has contributed to promoting the mission of the organization while also making an impact on our audience and stakeholders through Festival Programming. In 2015, his interest and passion led him to take Lahore International Children’s Film Festival one-step ahead and promoted to Festival Manager.
He is also working as a co-trainer in filmmaking workshops.
Fazal Ahmad
Photographer, Film Maker, Loves Daal-Chawal
After living a conformist life up till his bachelors in Computing, Fuzzal had enough of the emptiness within and started his little adventure of self-discovery and his true calling. After being 7 years on this journey he’s been assistant directors in Shoaib Mansoor’s ‘Bol’ and Jami’s ‘One’ and has worked on more than a dozen short films as a Director of Photography (DoP). He has also written and directed three short films. His photography work also covers a wide scope of subjects and themes covering countless professional and independent projects. For his love for children and belief in the cause of The Little Art, he has been working with The Little Art team as a photographer for the past 3 years and has been a part of various festivals and workshops. “I feel I am in my element now”, he says “and I am curious where my journey takes me.
Mudassir Hussain
Non-Linear Editor
Mudassar started his carrier with a production house as post production internee in 2012 and worked till 2014.
During this time, he learned about post production process and worked on many drama serial, commercial and short film.
In 2014 he joined ATV channel as a Non Linear Editor and worked till 2018. During this time, he edited Live Morning Shows, Live Ramzan Shows and other Entertainment report packages.
In 2018, he joined The Little Art as a Non Linear Editor. He is very inspired by the organization work with children and young.
Although he is working in this field since 2012 but he still feels that this is the new beginning of his life to work children and young and he is very positive about it.
Ali Hameed
Filmmaker, Cinematographer, photographer, Festival Programmer, Traveller, Documentarian, Editor
Ali Hameed is a graduate in Film and Television Production from the National College of Arts and completed his certification from DW Akademie, Berlin in FilmFestival and Event Management. He has worked in many film projects as director and director of photography. His documentary and fiction work has won several national and international awards, which includes Best Documentary award at the Vaasa Wild Life Film Festival (Finland), Best Documentary award at a competition held by University of Central England. Ali was selected for the 2008 Dubai IBDAA awards for his fiction film “Gilgit Express” which was also shortlisted in the 2008 Korea AISFF film competition. His thesis film “THAG” won 5 awards in Zab Film festival 2010 and documentary “Missing Vultures” was selected in Vassa Wild Life film festival 2010, in Finland.
Currently he is also working on his feature length film in Dubai, UAE.
Zubair Mushtaq
Web Developer, IT Project Manager, System Engineer, Traveler, Sportsman, Foodie
Zubair Mushtaq graduated from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Pakistan in computer engineering and completed his post-grad in 2010 from Royal Institute of Information Technology (KTH) Sweden with masters in telecommunication and online technologies. In Pakistan he has worked with Mobilink GSM, Pakistan’s major cellular network for communication technology and digital media implementation. He has volunteered with a number of non-profit groups and works consistently with The Little Art where he provides web and IT support to the organization and all its projects including Lahore International Children’s Film Festival, Pakistan’s largest film festival for children and young people.
Zubair’s major area of interest is man-machine interaction and the social impact of technology. This enables him to nurture creative ideas and play with technology to help people the most, and attain the highest possible impact. Zubair wants to travel around the globe and have multicultural experiences. He plays Badminton, and was an under-16 champion and has won university championships 8 times in Pakistan and Sweden. He is enjoying his never-ending journey towards technical and linguistic knowledge in Stockholm.
Sahar Uzair Ahmad
Travel junkie, Dreamer, Bookworm, Street Photographer, Social worker, Loves Kids, Film, Buff, Hippie, Free Thinker
Born in Lahore and raised in a mix of cultures, Sahar is a free spirit by nature and a child at heart. Her degree in business and subsequent industry experience of training and development has seen her involved with several non-profit organizations in many different capacities, often advocating for peace and children’s rights in education. With almost 10 years of experience as a volunteer social worker, Sahar is driven by working to better people’s lives.
Always in a hunt for inspiration, for the past few years, Sahar has been embarked on a journey of self-discovery through diverse projects relating to the various social interpretations of Arts. Children’s education is the main focus of her volunteer work throughout her career has seen her pursue her Masters in Art Education from Beaconhouse National University. In her brief moments of freedom, you will find her writing stories, taking photos, making films and experimenting with musical compositions.
Her future goals include creating unique learning opportunities for children to become the future dreamers, writers, artists, philosophers, scientists and inventors of Pakistan. In addition to working for The Little Art as Manager Programs (which she calls her dream job), she also currently volunteers as Editorial member to a creative urban publication knows as CitiesPlus based in Germany. To share her love of reading and writing, Sahar also plans to write a children’s book soon!
Momina K. Iqbal
“A girl is no one. That is what a girl must become.”
Momina has done her bachelor’s in Sociology and is currently working on her MPhil degree thesis. As reflected in Arya Stark’s quote, Momina started out with no particular direction, and a random department selection in University of Punjab. If there is one thing she loves and would spend the rest of her live dedicated to, its cats. In her free hours, she likes to spend time with her three Persian cats, Sneakers, Bounty and Brownie. She also has a thing for art. Once she made a painting in a competition and that painting got great appreciation from one of the international guests and he took that painting along with him. That was a great boost for her confidence. TLA has given Momina a new direction and energy and she thinks this is the place to where she belongs. She sees herself as the crazy cat lady in the future.
Ramsha Tofique
Project Coordinator
An introverted enthusiast, Ramsha tries to find a wee bit of excitement in everything. She is an avid reader, and a dedicated sportsperson; two of her favourite pastimes that she can cross any limits for. She has done her Bachelor’s and M.Phil. in Media Studies from Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore.
Ramsha’s quest to find work that she loves doing began during her bachelor’s degree. She started by interning as an Associate Producer at a television channel, only to end up being disappointed by the two-faced news world. Later, she tried her luck in content writing after her professor encouraged her to take that direction. While she enjoyed it for a few months, the no-opportunity-to-grow work compelled her to look for her actual and true calling: to contribute in providing opportunities to children and making a difference.
Ever since Ramsha joined The Little Art, she knew this was the place for her. Now it doesn’t take every ounce of her energy and forced motivation to get up every morning for work. She hopes to continue it that way and learn as many new skills as she can on the way.
Going on a road trip is all she ever dreams about; always looking out for work that can take her to places where she can get involved with the locals and learn about their culture. In the future, Ramsha sees herself setting up ‘book exchange’ corners on random streets and driving around a mini mobile library van for children.