Baker Artist Portfolios

Imani Muleyyar is an award-winning filmmaker with 30 years of experience in multi-media storytelling. He began his artist journey in 1996 at the age of 15, producing music for local hip hop and R&B artists and joining the Afrocentric music collective R.O.P. (Rights of Passage) to help promote positive images to the black community. Through his research of indigenous African music coinciding with the group's messaging, Imani developed a love for folk and classical music from around the world and aspired to one day become a film composer.

After a brief stay at American University, Imani dropped out of college and returned to Baltimore to launch his recording studio Bang-N-Beats with fellow music producer Kariz Marcel, who would go on to become a successful film composer himself. From 2001 to 2004 they produced music for some of the biggest acts in the city, and expanded their reach to other cities along the east coast, but when the music industry collapsed in the wake of the streaming era, they were forced to disband and shut down the studio.

With no savings, higher education, or job experience outside of music production, Imani found himself homeless at times while battling mental health issues and addiction. At his lowest point, in 2005 Imani enlisted in the Army and in 2007 he was deployed to Iraq.

As soon as Imani came home in 2008, he used his GI bill to go back to school and pursue his passion for film scoring, earning an associate’s degree in television from Montgomery College and a bachelor's in film from Towson University while winning several academic achievement awards and student film festivals. To continue his education, Imani came full circle and started working and taking classes again at American University.

Also during this time, Imani started pursuing another lifelong passion of his: martial arts. He began competing in the sport of mixed martial arts in 2010 while simultaneously producing videos for other fighters, eventually becoming one of the leading combat sport videographers in the region. His fighter profiles gained the attention of the local NBC Sports affiliate and in 2019 they hired Imani as a full-time producer / editor to create documentary shorts for major league sports teams, earning him his first Capital Emmy award. Then in 2021, he landed his dream job editing documentary features for the UFC, the world’s largest mixed martial arts organization in Las Vegas.

Imani retired from fighting in 2022 and lost his passion for combat sports, so he made the difficult decision to abandon his career and come back to Baltimore, looking to use the experience he gained over a decade in the TV industry to empower the people in his hometown. Imani launched Imani Network that year, a social media platform showcasing talent from the local black arts community. He also started a free training program to teach, mentor and hire locals on all his productions.

Soon after, Imani returned to his television roots to produce a news magazine show about the black arts community in Baltimore called Inside The Culture, gaining him attention from TV networks. He also began partnering with other production companies in the city to produce more inclusive projects representing Baltimore as a whole.

That’s when Imani launched a city wide initiative in 2025 called the Baltimore Cinematic Universe (BCU), a collective of diverse filmmakers developing stories to promote positive images of Baltimore to the world. He then ported his free training program over to the BCU as a workforce development program, to teach more locals about TV and film production and get them hired on industry projects.

Imani has used the BCU to unite filmmakers and arts organizations in the city under a common goal to raise up the local TV and film industry. He has built a strong community with his social media pages, newsletters and filmmaker events, and has collaborated on projects with organizations such as the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund and the SNF Parkway Theater. In the BCU's first year of operations, Imani has produced four projects that won numerous film festivals and awards and are currently in the market to air on major streaming networks. To aid in the BCU’s mission, Imani curated an advisory board of leading industry veterans to help guide the initiative in a positive direction. He also partnered with the non-profit organization Baltimore Filmmakers Collective to extend his free workforce development program to more locals, particularly those from underserved communities.

In 2026, Imani plans to unite more filmmakers and institutions in the city, produce more projects that positively reimagine Baltimore, and train more students on the art and business of filmmaking, with the ultimate goal of making Baltimore the next major TV and film hub in the country.