For the first decade of his life, Mustafa’s family moved to a new city every year — celebrating Halloween in Egypt one fall and Ramadan in Santa Cruz, California the next. He eventually came of age in a small tourist town nestled among the metaphysical red rocks of northern Arizona. On his tenth birthday, his mother gave him a Polaroid camera; one camera led to another, and soon every allowance dollar was spent at the Walgreens photo counter.
Mustafa went on to study at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Film & Television Production. He is now the Senior Video Producer at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where he produces and directs short films, documentaries, and interactive media. In 2025, he was selected for a fellowship at the Sundance Institute to develop his TV pilot, All At Once, into a feature film.