Indian American television director-editor Kabir Kabir has won an Emmy Award, a prestigious honor in the category of Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He was awarded at the 68th Creative Arts Emmys held Sept. 10-11 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The 41-year-old is an American television director and editor best known as the creator of The Tool Page, the oldest website dedicated to the band Tool.
Kabir is the son of Salman Akhtar, and nephew of Shabana Azmi’s husband, and lyricist Javed Akhtar. He is the first cousin of filmmakers Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar too. This was the third time Kabir got an Emmy nomination. The first one happened in 2012 for Outstanding Picture Editing For Short-Form Segments And Variety Specials. He had directed a segment of the 84th Academy Awards, starring host Billy Crystal and Melissa McCarthy which was well-received. The second nomination came the very next year for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series for an episode of the American sitcom Arrested Development. However, he finally managed to walk with the trophy this year. Kabir had also worked on British comedy series Mumbai Calling. He had edited the pilot episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend titled “Josh Just Happens to Live Here!” which aired in October 2015.
Kabir Akhtar has shown his editing-directing finesse working on episodic comedies, commercials, documentaries, short films, trailers, reality, and multi-camera shows, including “Arrested Development,” “Unsolved Mysteries,” “New Girl” and Comedy Central shows such as “The Daily Show.”
Based in Los Angeles, Akhtar is a Philadelphia native, holding an M.F.A. in Motion Picture Production from the University of Miami and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania.