Her resume as a member of Miami’s volleyball team is as dazzling as it gets.
Her accomplishments away from the sport are just as impressive.
Savanah Leaf earned recognition as the 2014 ACC Volleyball Player of the Year during her senior season at Miami. But she’s also an Olympian, a Grammy nominee and an award-making filmmaker.
Not a bad list of accomplishments to put together before one’s 30th birthday.
Before coming to Miami, Leaf had the opportunity of a lifetime: to suit up for Great Britain’s national women’s volleyball team and compete in the 2012 London Olympics.
She didn’t medal, but she brought with her to Coral Gables the experience of competing on the world’s biggest stage.
She wound up putting together a college career to remember.
Leaf totaled 502 kills in 2014, a number that still ranks fifth in program history for a single season, while her 575.5 points that season rank fourth. Her 1,194 career kills still rank in the top 10 too, as do her 1,401.5 career points.
She earned All-ACC First Team recognition twice, was a second-team AVCA All-American and was a finalist for the 2014 Senior CLASS Award.
After graduating, Leaf played professionally in both Puerto Rico and Turkey before being sidelined with a back injury.
While recovering, she reached out to different commercial and music video production companies in her native England for work.
That eventually paved the way for Leaf to begin directing music videos of her own and her work on the video for Gary Clark Jr.’s This Land in 2020 earned her a Grammy nomination.
In 2023, Leaf made her feature-film directorial debut with Earth Mama, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and later won the 2024 BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut.
– Christy Cabrera Chirinos