American Gypsy is Jasmine Dellal's first feature documentary. She earlier worked as associate producer and assistant editor on the late Marlon Riggs' award-winning Black Is...Black Ain't. While earning her M.J. in journalism at U.C. Berkeley she produced and directed the documentary short, In His Own Image, which won a student Emmy Award. She also co-directed, shot and edited the short, She Says.
Raised in England, Dellal also spent much of her childhood in India. She earned her undergraduate degree at Oxford University, studying modern languages.