Zal Batmanglij was born in 1987.
 He directed and co-wrote the 2011 film Sound of My Voice and the 2013 film The East, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Netflix series The OA, which debuted in 2016
 For his thesis film, he made a 35mm short called The Recordist (2007), which starred Marling

