Recipient of 9th Golden Excellence Awards 2026 for Media & Entertainment Innovation By: Shaneer Siddiqui
1. Tell us about yourself, your business journey and your contribution to the UAE.
I began as a freelance video producer in Media City in 2012, and Prism Media Group has since grown into a full production house working across advertising, documentary, and digital content for regional and international clients. My contribution has been helping tell UAE-based stories to global audiences — showing the world a version of this region that goes beyond the skyline, one built on the people and communities actually living here.
2. What does receiving the 9th Golden Excellence Award for Media & Entertainment Innovation mean to you?
It means the stories we’ve chosen to tell — about migrant workers, about small business owners, about first-generation Emirati entrepreneurs — have found an audience that matters. Receiving it under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahayan is particularly meaningful, since so much of our work is about showing coexistence as it actually looks, not as a slogan.
3. How do you view the role of the Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence in shaping the UAE’s society?
Media has enormous power to either divide or connect people, and the Ministry’s work gives storytellers here a framework and a mandate to do the latter. It has made space for stories about different communities that might not have found a platform elsewhere in the region.
4. What opportunities do you see emerging in your industry over the next few years?
Short-form, creator-led content is reshaping how brands and audiences connect, and AI tools are collapsing production costs for high-quality video, which means smaller, more diverse voices can finally compete with big-budget productions. That’s a genuinely exciting shift for storytellers.
5. What are your company’s key plans and growth priorities for the future?
We’re launching a documentary strand focused on entrepreneurs across the GCC and building an in-house creator studio to mentor emerging local talent. Our ambition is for Prism to be known as the place where the region’s next generation of storytellers gets its start.
