Izel Searle Garduno

Directing

Born: March 7, 2005 (age 21) · Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Izel Searle Garduno is a writer, director, animator, and sound designer currently studying an undergraduate degree in Screen Arts at AFTRS. Izel has always been dedicated to the creative arts, attending the Australian Performing Arts Grammar school from years 8-12. During her final year of high school in 2023, Izel was awarded Dux of her cohort, as well as receiving awards for academic achievement across several subjects, including Music, English, and Visual Arts. Izel’s Visual art major work ‘MOTHER’, a 3-minute stop-motion animated short was nominated and accepted in the 2023 ARTEXPRESS exhibition, and was screened in 2 galleries across NSW.

In 2024, as part of her submission to ‘AFTRS’, Izel wrote and directed two short films - one self-animated documentary titled ‘My Story’, the other a Sentimental Sci-Fi Short Film titled ‘CORROSIVE CONTEXT’, (Both available for viewing on YouTube). While commencing her study at AFTRS, Izel has explored various mediums, roles, and genres throughout the screen and theatrical arts. Izel has been the head sound designer on two Top-Selling Indie Theatre Productions, UNSW NUT’s 2023 Production of ‘Reagan Kelly’ and ‘The Double Bill’ produced by fellow AFTRS alumni Monique Placko. Alongside this, Izel is well-versed in working alongside experienced Directors in both Episodic, short, and feature films as a Script Supervisor, working on productions for ‘NEBULA’ Studios, ‘CIMP’ Production,s and a slew of AFTRS Master Capstones.

Experimenting with Animation is a mainstay throughout Izel’s current portfolio of work, in 2024 she produced, wrote, and Animated three pieces of stop-motion work: ‘BABY-STEPS’, ‘UZUMAKI’ and finally, ‘CELSIUM’ - the latter merging stop-motion, VFX and Live-action production to create a unique blend of campy, creature feature-inspired visuals.

In 2025 - alongside peer Emily Blake, Izel underwent her most ambitious project to date - ‘Phenomena’ is a micro-documentary that blurs the lines between non-fiction & animated storytelling. Izel’s dream is to make a career through directing, animating, and composing distinctive, experimental films and projects - venturing further into mixed media screen arts to create more unique pieces of striking, thought-provoking media.