Teodora Ana Mihai was born in Bucharest, Romania, in April 1981 under Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship. In 1989 she came to Belgium and was reunited with her parents, who had fled the year before.

In junior high, the opportunity arose to study in California, where her aunt’s family had emigrated. Teodora completed the last two years of high school at the French American International High School in San Francisco. Soon, inspired by her father’s previous passion for photography and the artistic environment of San Francisco she found what she wanted: to tell stories through images and sounds. It all started with film and video workshops geared toward teenagers, which led to a true passion for the seventh art.

Teodora went on to study film at Sarah Lawrence College in upstate New York. Upon returning to Belgium, she first started working in the industry as a script supervisor and assistant director followed by a stint in the TV industry. However, the desire to work on her own projects was so strong that she decided to shift focus and dedicate herself entirely to this. After directing the award-winning documentary Waiting for August, she is now developing a docu-fiction film about teenage orphans of the Mexican drug war, in collaboration with the Mexican writer Habacuc Antonio de Rosario.