Behind The Scenes: Dina Shawkat And A Family Shaped By Film

Basic Information

A Family Lineage Rooted in Screen Stories

Dina Shawkat stands at a crossroads where classic television history meets modern indie film. Her father, Paul Burke, embodied midcentury American television—stoic, searching, and resolute in shows like Naked City and 12 O’Clock High. That legacy, carried in countless reruns and memory, forms the proscenium for Dina’s own, quieter path behind the camera.

With husband Tony Shawkat—a figure often linked to entrepreneurial ventures and independent production—Dina became part of a small but persistent ecosystem of filmmakers building projects from grit rather than spectacle. Their family story is also a story about film as a family trade: not just an industry, but a shared language handed down like a well-worn script.

At the center of that next generation is their daughter, Alia Shawkat, born in 1989. Alia’s career—spanning cult television, adventurous independent films, and boundary-testing roles—has kept Dina’s name circulating in modern features and profiles, where she’s cited as both producer-mother and the daughter of Paul Burke. In family lists, Dina is also the sister of Paula Burke-Lopez and Paul Brian Burke, extending the Burke thread through siblings who share that same heritage of performance and production.

Career: Indie Credits and a Producer’s Touch

Dina’s professional footprint is compact but clear. She is credited as a producer on Vlad (2003), a dark genre feature, and as an executive producer on Bart Got a Room (2008), an offbeat coming-of-age comedy that played the indie circuit. These are not sprawling studio tentpoles; they are the kind of films that rely on trust, hustle, and the right relationships—hallmarks of independent production.

A producer’s role is often a study in controlled chaos: assembling financing, supporting creative direction, navigating schedules, hiring teams, and keeping the machine humming. On small features, the job can feel like spinning plates in a windstorm. Dina’s credits sit squarely in that realm, aligned with Basra Entertainment and a family-centered circle of collaborators who built projects from the ground up.

Selected Works

Basra Entertainment and the Indie Engine

Basra Entertainment, often associated with Tony Shawkat and linked to Dina’s credits, typifies how small production banners function in the wider film ecosystem. They scout modestly budgeted scripts with strong hooks; they recruit talent where relationships run deepest; they make the math work. These outfits are the arterial network beneath Hollywood’s flashier skyline, bringing oxygen to ideas that might not fit the studio formula.

Within that world, a producer like Dina is both architect and caretaker. She’s not the public face on the poster. She’s the call at dawn smoothing a wrinkle, the meeting that unlocks a location, the last-minute contract that keeps the day on track. Indie producing is less red carpet than carpet tape—practical, vital, often invisible.

Public Presence, Media Mentions, and Privacy

By design or temperament, Dina has kept a modest public profile. Her name rises most frequently in the context of Alia Shawkat’s interviews and features, where family and upbringing form part of the narrative arc. That double vantage—daughter of a revered television actor and mother to a modern multi-hyphenate—makes her a conduit between two eras of screen storytelling.

There is scant public information about personal finances, social media, or a broader portfolio of work beyond the known film credits and company association. In this, Dina is emblematic of many independent producers: central to the making, peripheral to the spotlight.

Extended Timeline

• 1926: Paul Raymond Burke (Dina’s father) is born, beginning a path that will define a chapter of American television history.
• 1950s–1960s: Paul Burke’s career peaks across network dramas and features; the Burke family name becomes a familiar one to TV audiences.
• 1989: Alia Martine Shawkat is born, her artistic path taking shape in the decades to come.
• 2003: Dina is credited as a producer on Vlad, marking a visible career entry in film databases.
• 2008: Dina serves as executive producer on Bart Got a Room, an indie comedy that circulates through festivals and limited release.
• 2009: Paul Burke dies, with Dina named among his children in family remembrances.
• 2010s–2020s: Dina remains largely behind the scenes; her public mentions continue mainly through profiles of Alia and references to family lineage.

Family Snapshot

Influence and Legacy: The Quiet Architecture of a Career

Some careers announce themselves with press tours and opening weekends; others accrue in the ledger lines and call sheets. Dina Shawkat’s story reads like a producer’s blueprint: relationships first, projects built in the margins, a commitment to bringing work across the finish line. Her legacy also runs through family—bridging a father who personified classic TV craftsmanship and a daughter who thrives in today’s idiosyncratic, adventurous screen culture.

The image that emerges is not a marquee, but a scaffold: sturdy, mostly unseen, essential. In an industry that lionizes visibility, Dina represents the force that keeps the show moving—proof that film is a family of trades as much as it is a parade of faces.

FAQ

Who is Dina Shawkat?

She is an American film producer with credits on independent features and the mother of actress Alia Shawkat.

What films has she worked on?

Her credited works include Vlad (2003) as a producer and Bart Got a Room (2008) as an executive producer.

How is she related to Paul Burke?

Dina is the daughter of Paul Raymond Burke, a prominent mid-20th-century television actor.

Who is her spouse?

She is married to Tony Shawkat, who is associated with independent production efforts.

What is Basra Entertainment?

A small production banner linked to the Shawkat family and independent film projects.

Does Dina have public social media?

She maintains a low public profile, and no widely recognized public social accounts are prominent.

Is her net worth publicly known?

There is no reliable public information detailing her personal finances.

Why does she also appear as “Dina Burke” in credits?

“Dina Burke” reflects her family name through her father, Paul Burke, and appears in professional credits and listings.