Aayas Joshi

Aayas Dhoj Joshi is a Morehead-Cain Scholar and international student from Kathmandu, Nepal, pursuing a career in solutions-focused environmental documentary filmmaking at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Aayas’ work includes film and photography projects about community healing after Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina; indigenous-led conservation of wild buffalo in the Yellowstone ecosystem; buffalo rematriation and cultural revitalization with the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin; recovery and resilience amidst displacement by wildfires in Maui, Hawaii; conservation of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales on the New England coast; and glacial loss in the Mount Everest region of the Himalayas.

Aayas has contributed to projects featured or forthcoming on HBO, Hulu, NATURE on PBS, and PBS NewsHour. His personal projects have earned honors from the National Press Photographers Foundation (NPPF), the White House News Photographers Association (WHNPA), the Hearst Journalism Awards, and College Photographer of the Year (CPoY).

Aayas will graduate from UNC Chapel Hill in May 2026. with a B.A. in Media and Journalism. Upon graduating, he plans to freelance as a documentary director of photography and cinematographer based out of New York.