Hanan Kattan
Hanan Kattan is a British/Canadian award-winning film producer, entrepreneur, author and podcaster of Palestinian heritage. Her films have won more than 50 international awards, including I Can’t Think Straight and Polarized, her fifth award-winning feature film, which was released worldwide in 2024. She is currently producing a slate of international film and series projects, including Grand Slam alongside U.S. studio New Regency and Kismet alongside Bedrock Studios.
Hanan’s career spans film, media, entrepreneurship and the promotion of Palestinian culture. She began her career running the L’Oréal agency in Jordan before building and growing businesses across the UK and internationally. She created the acclaimed hair, bath and body brand Te Tao, which was distributed through major UK retailers, and previously distributed brands including Nicky Clarke and Molton Brown across the Middle and Far East. She also founded Tabun Kitchen, a modern Palestinian restaurant in London’s Soho, created to celebrate Palestinian food and heritage.
Hanan’s Palestinian heritage has always been central to her creative work. Her mother, Nawal, was a Nakba survivor who was ethnically cleansed from West Jerusalem in 1948, while her father’s family is from Bethlehem. Hanan grew up travelling between Jordan and Palestine, including crossing the Allenby Bridge and experiencing Israeli military interrogation as a child. Her family’s history, spanning Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Palestinian diaspora, has profoundly shaped her work as a filmmaker, author and advocate for Palestinian stories.
She is the founder and host of The Enlightenment Podcast, which explores Palestine through conversations with historians, authors, artists, filmmakers, medics, lawyers, activists and other leading voices. The podcast grew from Hanan’s desire to provide historical and cultural context that she felt was frequently missing from mainstream media, while showcasing the depth, humanity and traditions of Palestinian life.
In 2026, Hanan published Palestine Revealed, a deeply researched non-fiction account of Palestinian dispossession and the geopolitical forces that shaped it. Drawing on hundreds of sources, including archival material, UN reports, court documents and primary sources, the book combines Hanan’s family history with a wider examination of the history and politics of Palestine. As she writes in the book, her family’s story is one part of a much larger living archive carried across generations of Palestinians.
Hanan is a member of BAFTA and the Canadian Academy of Film and has spoken at events including TEDx, DLD Women, BAFTA and the BFI. She has also raised funds for numerous charitable causes, including the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, and supports education for young Palestinians.
Through film, podcasting and now Palestine Revealed, Hanan continues to use storytelling to bring under-represented histories, cultures and characters to wider audiences.
Hanan Kattan
A lifetime entrepreneur, Hanan is a British/Canadian multi-award-winning film producer of Palestinian heritage, whose fifth award winning feature film, Polarized, released worldwide at the end of 2024. Her films have won over 50 international awards, and include Despite the Falling Snow, starring Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible) and Charles Dance.
She is currently producing a slate of international film and series projects, including Grand Slam alongside U.S. studio New Regency, and Kismet alongside Bedrock Studios.
Hanan is also the host and founder of the Enlightenment Podcast engaging in
meaningful dialogue on Palestine, offering insight and context often missing from mainstream legacy media, and highlighting Palestine’s rich traditions, history and culture.
Hanan grew up involved in a portfolio of family businesses encompassing
engineering, manufacturing and distribution. She began her career running the L’Oreal agency in Jordan and, after training in Paris, she took annual turnover from £200,000 to over £2 million in 18 months.
Hanan lived and studied in the US and Japan, and then based herself in London where her businesses have included distributing brands such as Nicky Clarke and Molton Brown brands across the Middle and Far East. Hanan then created her own brands including acclaimed hair care and bath and body brand, Te Tao, distributed in Boots, Tesco and Superdrug and all the major UK retailers, a range Marie Claire called ‘beauty with a conscience’. She took Te Tao from zero revenue to £4.2 million turnover in three years and exited by selling the brand.
With a passion for growing global awareness of Palestinian food and culture, Hanan created Tabun Kitchen, a modern Palestinian restaurant in London’s Soho. The restaurant won Lux magazine’s award and was nominated for ‘Best New Casual Dining Concept’.
Hanan also maintains and actively grows a portfolio of investment properties in the UK, and a percentage of profits goes to support the education of young Palestinians.
Hanan is a member of BAFTA and the Canadian Academy of Film. She has spoken at at conferences such as DLD Women and TEDx as well as at BAFTA and the BFI. Hanan has raised money for numerous causes including the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
Hanan won ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the Kingston Business Awards as well as ‘Best Creative Sector Business’ and was a finalist in the ‘Breaking the Mould’ Awards. As an acclaimed author of marketing book ‘Grow Your Profits’, Hanan was invited to give Google Workshops at both the British Business Show at the Excel Centre, and the Scottish Business Show.