Joshua Dawson

Joshua Ashish Dawson is a Bangalore-raised, Los Angeles-based, architecturally trained film director whose research-driven practice examines how climate change, water governance, and infrastructure systems reshape cities and everyday life. His work, described in a New York Times profile as “both slightly absurd and eminently believable,” uses cinematic worldbuilding as a critical method to construct speculative futures– revealing how political, ecological, and social forces embedded within the built environment disproportionately impact marginalized communities.

Alongside his independent practice, Dawson works as a design consultant and worldbuilder for film and television, most recently credited as Worldbuilding Architect for the Netflix original anime Tokyo Override. He is a Year 12 Creative Science member at NEW INC, a screenwriting fellow of the Berggruen Institute’s Vaster Than Empires III program, and an alum of the Future of Film Incubator in London.

His projects have premiered internationally across film and digital arts contexts, with presentations including Fiber Festival (Amsterdam), Athens Digital Arts Festival, Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, and Sci-Fi London, receiving the Jury Prize for Best Science Fiction Film at Cinequest and a Core77 Design Award. His work has been featured across international design, film, and culture publications, including VICE, The Hollywood Reporter, Canal 180, Next Nature, The Weather Channel, and Domus. He holds a Master’s degree in Advanced Architectural Studies from the University of Southern California.