Beri Shalmashi is a screenwriter, director, and commentator on Kurdish and Iranian affairs. Her documentary On the Edge of the Revolution (2023) was filmed on the Iran-Iraq border during the protests following the killing of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, while her earlier film Shouted From the Rooftops (2017) about Kurdish female fighters reached wide audiences across the Kurdish diaspora. Her debut film Mama (2010) was nominated for a Golden Calf, the Dutch Academy Award, and she won the Silver Camera for Storytelling for Big Village (2021).

Born in Paris, to a family from Iranian Kurdistan, Shalmashi is a frequent media commentator and speaker on human rights, regional security, and Kurdish issues. She was educated at the Netherlands Film Academy, the Utrecht School of the Arts, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of California, Los Angeles, and has lived and worked across the Middle East, including in Erbil, where she taught at Salahaddin University. During the war against ISIS, she wrote columns for the Dutch national newspaper de Volkskrant. Shalmashi has served as a consultant to the Netherlands Film Fund and is director of program agency Avanti, while advising international organizations, funds, and filmmakers.