Maleena Pone has spent 20+ years helping others tell their stories. Then she told her own.
What she discovered in the process became the foundation for everything StoryTell-Her Studios now offers.
THE BEGINNING
Maleena Pone started her career in local radio at 17. Not because she had a plan, but because she had a voice — and an instinct that stories, told well, could change things. Twenty years later, that instinct has taken her from community broadcasting to Channel 4, from BBC Sounds to the boardrooms of global brands, and from behind the microphone to behind the camera.
THE BREADTH
Along the way she became a producer, a director, a journalist, a podcaster, a speaker, a mentor, and a certified life coach. She has hosted programmes for BBC Asian Network, executive produced campaigns for Nike, IKEA, and Smirnoff, launched TV networks, and built StoryTell-Her Studios from the ground up into and BAFTA supported production company. She has sat on panels at Soho Media Club and Penguin HQ, and facilitated workshops for We Are Doc Women and PLU, and mentored hundreds of emerging creatives from underrepresented backgrounds.
THE TURNING POINT
But the work that changed everything was the hardest she has ever done. Saving Mum: Our Family Secret — a self-authored documentary about her mother, her British Indian identity, and everything her family had never said out loud — aired on Channel 4 in December 2025. It won an RTS award. It was seen by millions. And it taught her something no broadcast credit ever could: that telling your own story is not just a creative act. It is an act of reclamation. Of becoming.
THE METHODOLOGY
What she discovered in that process — about emotional readiness, narrative architecture, trauma-informed creative practice, and what it truly means to hold a story safely — became the methodology that now runs through everything at StoryTell-Her Studios. The films. The Lab. The workshops. All of it is built on the same foundation: the belief that the most meaningful stories require more than technical skill to tell. They require a guide who has done the hardest version of this work themselves.
THE INVITATION
Maleena works at the intersection of filmmaking, coaching, and creative strategy — which is a complicated way of saying she helps people tell the truth, beautifully, and build something lasting from it. Whether you are a creator with a story you have been circling for years, a brand that wants to make work that actually matters, or an organisation ready to invest in the stories its people carry — you are in the right place.
RTS award winner
Saving Mum: Our Family Secret, Channel 4, December 2025
Certified life coach
Trauma-informed practice. Founder of The Rewrite Method coaching programme
Filmmaker and Exec Producer
20+ years across broadcast, branded, and social-impact production
Studio founder
StoryTell-Her Studios — BAFTA-supported, working with Channel 4, BBC, Nike, IKEA and beyond
One person. A lot of expertise. All of it in service of your story.
Other people pick a lane. Maleena built a studio at the intersection.
Trauma-informed, creatively led, commercially sharp and deeply unbothered about being hard to categorise.
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You have a story. You need a guide. Book a discovery call and let's find out what it wants to become.
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You are a brand, broadcaster, or commissioner looking for story-led production that goes deeper.
Commission a film
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You want Maleena in the room with your team, your organisation, or your event. Let's make it happen.
Book a workshop or talk
Ready to work together?
Here is where to begin.
Not sure where to start?
Start with a conversation. Every engagement at StoryTell-Her Studios begins with a discovery call — no obligation, no pitch. Just an honest conversation about where you are and where your story might take you.