Sana Amanat


Sana Amanat is an American comic book editor. Her notable credits include , and Captain Marvel. She co-created Marvel's first solo series to feature a Muslim female superhero, Ms. Marvel.

Early life

Amanat was born into a Pakistani family. She lived with her parents and 3 brothers, who were Pakistani immigrants, in a predominantly white New Jersey suburb. Throughout her childhood, Amanat had trouble fitting in and struggled with self-identity.
Amanat studied political science with a focus on the Middle East at Barnard College at Columbia University in 2004.

Career

After college, Amanat worked in magazine publishing for a few years. She then worked for an indie comic book company. There, Amanat learned about graphic storytelling. Two years later, the company went out of business.
Amanat's next career move was to join Marvel Comics in 2009. According to Amanat, an executive at Marvel approached her for the job because she was different from their average employee. She said that the executive told her she had "something different to offer than the regular fanboy who has read comics since he was a kid. a different voice, and need voice in order to change Marvel." Currently, she is the Director of Content and Character Development at Marvel Comics. In 2014, she co-created Marvel's first solo series to feature a female Muslim superhero called Ms. Marvel. The comic spent several weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers List and also won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story in 2015. Ms. Marvel sells much more digitally than in stores, and has at times been Marvel's top digital seller overall.

Inspiration

In her Ted Talk, Amanat stated that "the big idea behind Ms. Marvel very much about minority representation, the bigger idea was about finding your authentic self". While creating the comic, she drew on her own experience as the child of Pakistani immigrants in the New Jersey suburbs in hopes that the next generation will not experience identity rejection as she did through a relatable superhero.

Comics