Rao is a Gotham Nominated and Indie spirit nominated feature filmmaker, with roots in Missouri, Tennessee, and Illinois.

Rao’s short film debut as writer and director, THE TRUCK, World Premiered at Telluride Film Festival, won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short at Oscar-qualifying Florida Film Festival, Best Screenplay at Flickers' Rhode Island Film Festival, screened at MoMA, Hamptons International Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Chicago Critics Film Festival, and more than 50 festivals and 20 awards worldwide. She’s a Hear Us Grantee for her debut feature film, and a thesis student on scholarship at NYU Grad Film.

Rao comes from a background in direct cinema mentored by Albert Maysles, and independent fiction features. Her acclaimed feature films as producer and editor include Producing and Co-Editing MADELINE’S MADELINE, editing MAINELAND, editing MATERNA, editing BEEN HERE STAY HERE, and more. Rao has given Artist talks at IFP Narrative Lab, The Edit Center, UnionDocs, and Yale University and has taught workshops at True/False Film Festival. Rao is a proud member of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia.