Jaffar Mahmood [Jah-fur Ma-mood] was born and raised in Toms River, New Jersey. He received his B.A. in Economics from Tufts University and his M.F.A. from The Peter Stark Producing Program USC. The issues Jaffar faced growing up bi-racial became the inspiration for his feature directorial debut, Shades of Ray. Executive produced by Jake Kasdan (New Girl), the independent film stars Zachary Levi (Chuck) and won awards at film festivals around the world.