The “incredible, talented, gifted god of lighting Black folk” (according to cinematographer Bradford Young), Malik Hassan Sayeed started his career as a gaffer on Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. He was quickly promoted to cinematographer on four Spike Lee movies, becoming the youngest African American ever to shoot a feature film. Malik went on to become 2nd unit cinematographer on Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut, as well as Andrew Niccol’s award-winning Gattaca.

Malik joined Little Minx in 1998, and his short film debut (co-directed with Arthur Jafa as part of Little Minx’s acclaimed Exquisite Corpse series) was the first short to open Sundance Film Festival. It also served as inspiration for Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning feature, Moonlight.

In the commercial industry, Malik has worked with high profile brands such as Apple, Gatorade, AT&T, Levi’s, Lexus, and Nike. He also won the VMA for Best Cinematography for Beyonce’s Lemonade. In 2022, Malik was named a visionary director on Adweek's Creative 100 list for his broad range of work.

Alongside Arthur Jafa and Elissa Blount Moorhead, Malik Hassan Sayeed is the co-founder of TNEG—a motion picture studio whose goal is to create a Black cinema as culturally, socially, and economically central to the 21st century as was black music to the 20th century.