Directing
Kaya Tokuhisa studied film and television directing at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana. Her student work was well received at festivals, winning awards such as Lokvanj award for the best Slovenian short documentary at the festival DokMa for the short documentary Ples besed (Dance of Words), Outstanding International Student Film Award at the festival of Beijing Film Academy and the Kodak Award for Best Student Film at the Slovenian Film Festival for the short film Sestrična (The Cousin), the Academy Prešeren Award for TV drama Nekakšen sindrom (A Kind of a Syndrome). Kaya graduated with distinction under the mentorship of professors Miran Zupanič and Igor Šmid.
She has since worked as a freelancer, taking on a number of diverse projects, mainly working for the national television RTV Slovenija, where she is credited as the director of more than 250 television programmes. She has extensive experience in directing documentaries, fiction films, shows for children, as well as in the specialised field of multicam shooting of classical concerts. Her documentary projects include Pesem iz revirjev (A Song from the Mining Districts), Dragotin Cvetko, Privlačnost (S)pola (Attraction of the Sexes) and Muzej jaslic na Brezjah (Nativity Museum in Brezje).
In 2014, she was chosen to direct the Slovenian contribution to the European Broadcasting Union's Eurovision Children's Drama Series. The film Nur has been aired on national programes of many European countries as well as many memeber countries of the Asian Broadcasting Union, including Japan's NHK in 2017. The film included in a research project on children's programmes that deal with the refugee issue at the Westminster University in London.
Kaya has also directed four well-reviewed theatre productions; Horion (hosted by Gledališče Glej), Vzgoja Stoika (The Education of the Stoic, at the Anton Podbevšek Teater - also accepted in competition to the Slovenian theatre festival) and was the stage director for three chamber opera productions Junak našega časa (The Hero of Our Time), Nežni velikan (The Gentle Giant) and Veveriček posebne sorte (A Special Sort of Squirrel) for the Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre.
Kaya also directs live events and promotional videos for the internet. To see all her latest work which includes a short documentary about Ljubljana's honorary citizens, videos debunking conspiracy theories about covid vaccines and short comedy films about online dictionaries, visit the news section.
Acting
In her final year of directing studies, Kaya decided to expand her knowledge and took part in acting classes. She passed the entrance exam at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television the following year and studied stage acting under professors Jožica Avbelj and Jernej Lorenci for the next two years. As well as appearing in student productions, she was cast in the leading role of Gerda in Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana's production of the The Snow Queen. The show ran for three consecutive seasons, 66 times in total. She was also the solo actor in a performance in the music installation by the composer Aldo Kumar as part of an exhibition at the Ljubljana City Gallery. Since then, her focus has been on merging the acting craft with singing. She continued studying at postgraduate level and now holds a Master's degree in stage acting - specialising in theatre singing. One of her passions is also coaching people for public appearances.