Dinara was born and raised in Almaty, Kazakhstan. At the age of 9, she discovered her parents’ shelves of VHS cassettes and films like La Strada by Federico Fellini, Dancer in the Dark by Lars von Trier, and the Terminator by James Cameron changed her life. She started dreaming about telling stories and working in movies and television.
At the age of 17, she packed her bags and traveled 7,000 miles to pursue education in the United States. She studied journalism at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where she had a chance to adapt and direct a short story by Robert Bloch. Her short film premiered at Knoxville & Nashville Film Festivals.
She teamed up with her parents, indie filmmakers, to edit their feature film LITTLE BROTHER that premiered at the 70th Venice Film Festival, and won Best Foreign Film award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Honorable Mention award at Nashville Film Festival, Masters of World Cinema screening at San Francisco Film Festival and Dallas Film Festival, Foreign Ministry Award in GoEast Film Festival in Germany, Best Foreign Feature Film at Cine Junior Film Festival in France.
She studied at the American Film Institute where she honed her craft of editing and learned to collaborate with different artists and personalities.
Dinara was fortunate enough to be selected for the most competitive Scripted Editing Internship for the Academy of Television and Sciences Foundation.
She edited Season 4 of The Chi (Showtime) and co-edited episodes for Queen of the South (USA), Ordinary Joe (NBC), and Tell Me Your Secrets (TNT).