Lofanitani is an Actor, writer, filmmaker influencer, and model based in Los Angeles, CA, and working everywhere.
“Being an Indigenous woman who is loud, proud, and unapologetically alive is a radical act in itself.”
Waqlisat, Malo elelei!
(greetings in Maqlaqsyals and Tongan)
Lofanitani is a Black Indigenous woman who is Black and Tongan and her Native American tribes are Modoc, Tahlequah Cherokee, and Klamath. Raised in Oregon both rural on her Klamath reservation in Chiloquin and urban in Portland. Lofanitani unapologetically centers joy, power, and futurism in her work.
Lofanitani Aisea (b. 1999, Portland, OR)
Lofanitani Aisea is a Black Indigenous interdisciplinary multimedia experimental performance artist, filmmaker, and storyteller who is Modoc, Klamath, Tahlequah, Black, and Tongan. Her practice fuses film, movement, sound, and performance to uplift and explore personal and cultural narratives, centering joy as a radical act of self-determination and communal resilience. Through an unapologetic and experimental lens, she interrogates identity, memory, and intergenerational storytelling—redefining the ways in which histories are archived, embodied, and imagined.
Aisea’s career spans multiple creative spheres, having worked in Hollywood at Warner Bros., with Apple TV, where she contributed to high-profile productions, including Presumed Innocent (2024). Her work extends into philanthropy and Indigenous storytelling, collaborating with institutions such as the Potlatch Fund, the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (Precipice Fund), and Nia Tero’s Seedcast. She has received fellowships and commissions from organizations including Confluence & Oregon Film, the Indigenous Place Keeping Artist Fellowship, and the Hispanic Access Foundation, where she directed and produced films that foreground Indigenous ecological knowledge and diasporic narratives.
Academically, Aisea holds concurrent Bachelor’s degrees in Indigenous Race & Ethnic Studies and Asian Studies from the University of Oregon, with additional studies at Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou (University of Otago, Aotearoa). She was awarded the 1st Indigenous Studies Honor Award from those institutions and selected for the MIHI x A24: Beyond the Screen inaugural cohort, a mentorship program for women and non-binary POC filmmakers supported by A24 and Warner Bros.
Aisea’s storytelling is a site of reclamation—melding contemporary media with ancestral frameworks to create immersive, sensorially rich experiences. Whether through film, performance, or installation, her work is a call to reimagine the past, embrace the present, and feel forward into liberated futures through centering joy and play.
Exploring and pushing the boundaries of what “Native” can be has always been a part of what Lofanitani’s work has spoken to. Through educational TikToks, YouTube videos, and Filmmaking, Lofanitani shares activism work that navigates her own Black Indigenous experience and creates space for BIPOC who are underrepresented in media. Lofanitani’s vision for the future is to shatter outdated and violent representations of BIPOC and make space for intersecting identities that can be whatever they want, however they want.
Connect with Lofanitani:
All social platforms (@Lofanitani)
lofanitani.aisea@gmail.com
Education:
B.A. Double Major in Asian Studies (Korea Focus) and Indigenous Race & Ethnic Studies | Minor: Native American & Indigenous Studies, University of Oregon