Who Is Arabella Sezen Oz? Everything About Dr. Mehmet Oz’s Daughter

Arabella Sezen Oz is best known as the daughter of Dr. Mehmet Oz and Lisa Oz, but her own story extends well beyond her famous family background. Rather than following her father into medicine or becoming a television personality like her older sister Daphne Oz, Arabella has developed a career connected to acting, filmmaking, writing, and mental health counseling. Her professional journey has moved between creative storytelling and an interest in the psychological side of human behavior, giving her a distinctive place within the Oz family.

Although Arabella has a recognizable surname, she has generally maintained a much lower public profile than her father. In recent years, however, her filmmaking work has brought renewed attention to her career. Her feature film Mallory’s Ghost was selected for the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival, where she was credited as its director and screenwriter. SXSW also describes her as someone who came to the project after moving from film school toward mental health counseling and eventually back to filmmaking.

Quick Information Table

Arabella Sezen Oz’s Early Life and Family Background

Arabella grew up in a family where medicine, media, education, and creative work were all part of everyday life. Her father, Dr. Mehmet Oz, became widely known as a cardiothoracic surgeon and television personality, while her mother, Lisa Oz, established her own career as an author and media figure. Their children consequently grew up around two very different professional worlds: one centered on medicine and public communication and another connected with writing, relationships, and personal wellbeing.

Arabella is one of four children in the family, alongside Daphne, Zoe Yasemin, and Oliver. Her sister Daphne eventually became a familiar television personality and cookbook author, while the other siblings have generally maintained more private professional lives. Arabella’s own career demonstrates that the Oz children did not all follow the same professional route. Her interest in performance and storytelling eventually led her toward film, while her interest in emotional and psychological subjects also became important to her professional development.

Who Is Dr. Mehmet Oz, Arabella’s Father?

To understand why Arabella Sezen Oz attracts public interest, it helps to understand the career of her father. Mehmet Oz built his early professional reputation in medicine, particularly cardiothoracic surgery, before becoming a prominent television communicator. He became nationally recognized through appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and later through The Dr. Oz Show, which ran for more than a decade and made his name familiar to millions of viewers.

His public career meant that Arabella grew up with an unusually recognizable family name. Yet sharing a famous surname does not necessarily mean sharing the same career ambitions. Arabella chose a considerably different direction. Instead of becoming a physician or building a health-focused television career, she became interested in acting and filmmaking and later explored counseling. Her career therefore illustrates how the children of public figures can develop identities that are separate from their parents’ professions.

Her Mother, Lisa Oz, and the Oz Family Influence

Lisa Oz has also played an important role in the family’s public identity. She has worked as an author, television personality, and writer whose work has often explored relationships, personal development, and wellbeing. Her career provided Arabella with another creative influence beyond her father’s medical background.

The combination of her parents’ interests helps provide context for Arabella’s unusual professional path. Her father’s career was strongly associated with medicine and public education, while her mother’s work emphasized communication and personal wellbeing. Arabella ultimately developed interests that touched both areas without simply copying either parent. Her move between film and mental health counseling is particularly notable because both fields involve observing people, understanding emotion, and communicating stories or experiences.

Arabella Oz’s Education and Interest in Film

Education became an important part of Arabella’s transition toward the entertainment industry. TheWrap reported in 2015 that she was a graduate of Columbia’s drama program when she was preparing to make her feature-film debut in When the Starlight Ends. That report described her as the daughter of Dr. Mehmet Oz while emphasizing her training in drama.

Her education appears to have been more than a brief entry into acting. Arabella later developed writing and directing credits, suggesting that her interest in filmmaking expanded beyond performing in front of a camera. IMDb currently lists her as an actress, writer, and director, with credits spanning films and television projects. This progression from acting toward writing and directing becomes especially clear in her recent work on Mallory’s Ghost.

Her Acting Career and When the Starlight Ends

Arabella’s acting career became more visible when she was cast opposite Sam Heughan in the independent film When the Starlight Ends. TheWrap reported in 2015 that the movie represented her feature debut, with production taking place in Los Angeles.

The film was eventually released with Arabella playing multiple roles, including Carli, Cassandra, and Chelsea. Apple TV’s listing identifies her among the movie’s principal cast alongside Sam Heughan and David Arquette. Her work in the movie gave audiences an opportunity to see her as a performer in her own right rather than simply as a member of the Oz family.

Her filmography later expanded with projects including Hunter’s Cove, Jigsaw, Our House, and television work such as Chapters and Nightcap. Entertainment databases currently list her credits across acting, writing, directing, and production, showing that her involvement in film has become broader over time.

From Film to Mental Health Counseling

One of the most interesting parts of Arabella’s story is the connection between her creative career and mental health work. SXSW’s official contributor biography explains that she wrote Mallory’s Ghost while working as a mental health counselor in Manhattan. The festival describes her professional journey as moving from film school to therapy and eventually back toward filmmaking.

This detail adds important context to her recent creative work. Rather than presenting filmmaking and counseling as completely unrelated careers, Arabella’s path suggests that her understanding of psychology and human behavior became part of her creative perspective. However, public sources do not provide enough information to make detailed claims about her counseling practice, clients, or private professional experiences. Those aspects of her work should therefore remain private rather than being filled in with speculation.

Mallory’s Ghost and Her Move Into Directing

Arabella reached another major stage of her filmmaking career with Mallory’s Ghost. According to the official SXSW program, the film was part of the Narrative Feature Competition at the 2026 festival. Arabella is credited as director and screenwriter, while she also appears in the cast and shares editing duties with Nick Canellakis.

The film follows Mallory, a woman who becomes consumed by jealousy and begins to believe that her boyfriend’s former lover is haunting her. SXSW describes it as a psychological and playful exploration of envy and its connection to self-understanding. The subject matter is particularly interesting given Arabella’s background in mental health counseling.

The project also demonstrates how much her role in filmmaking has expanded. She is not simply acting in someone else’s production; she is credited with writing and directing the feature and participating in editing. Nick Canellakis contributed as co-director, editor, composer, and actor, according to the festival’s production credits.

Arabella Oz and Nick Canellakis

Arabella’s professional and personal life has also intersected with musician and filmmaker Nick Canellakis. SXSW’s contributor profile describes Canellakis as her husband and collaborator, and the festival credits him in several roles on Mallory’s Ghost.

Their collaboration is particularly relevant to understanding Arabella’s current creative work. The project is not simply a performance vehicle; it represents a shared filmmaking effort involving writing, directing, editing, music, and acting. Because Arabella generally maintains a private personal life, detailed information about their relationship should not be assumed beyond what has been publicly documented by credible sources.

Arabella Sezen Oz’s Relationship With Her Famous Family

Being the daughter of Dr. Mehmet Oz inevitably connects Arabella to a highly recognizable public family. Her father spent years appearing on television and later entered another highly visible chapter of his public career. Her sister Daphne has also developed a public career through television, food, and lifestyle media.

Arabella’s approach has been noticeably different. While she has participated in films and festivals, she has not built her career primarily around her family name. Her recent work demonstrates a stronger emphasis on creative authorship and personal interests. In that sense, the most useful way to understand her story is not simply as “Dr. Mehmet Oz’s daughter,” but as a filmmaker and performer whose background happens to include one of America’s most recognizable media families.

What Makes Arabella Oz’s Story Stand Out?

Several aspects of Arabella’s career make her biography distinctive:

• She moved from acting into broader filmmaking, taking on writing and directing responsibilities rather than remaining solely a performer.
• Her professional interests span two very different fields, with film and mental health counseling both appearing in her documented career journey.
• Her family is highly recognizable, yet she has maintained a considerably lower public profile than her father and sister Daphne.
• Her recent work is increasingly personal and creative, particularly through Mallory’s Ghost, where she served as writer and director.

Taken together, these details show a career that has developed gradually rather than following the most obvious path available to someone raised in a famous family. Her story is therefore less about celebrity inheritance and more about professional experimentation, education, and finding a creative voice.

Final Thoughts

Arabella Sezen Oz’s story goes beyond her identity as Dr. Mehmet Oz’s daughter. She grew up in a prominent family, studied drama at Columbia, entered the film world as an actress, and gradually expanded her work into writing and directing. Her acting credits include When the Starlight Ends and Jigsaw, while her later filmmaking work has established another side of her professional identity.

Her work on Mallory’s Ghost represents an especially significant chapter because she served as its director and screenwriter, while also acting in the film. The project’s appearance at SXSW in 2026 placed her work in a major festival setting and provided a clearer picture of the filmmaker she is becoming.

Ultimately, Arabella’s biography is a story of developing an identity beyond a famous surname. Her path through acting, filmmaking, and mental health counseling shows a range of interests that cannot be reduced to her relationship with Dr. Mehmet Oz. At the same time, her family background remains an important part of the story because it provides the context in which her own creative and professional choices developed.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is Arabella Sezen Oz?

Arabella Sezen Oz is the daughter of Dr. Mehmet Oz and Lisa Oz. She is an actress, writer, and director whose career has included film and television work. She has also worked as a mental health counselor in Manhattan, according to her official SXSW contributor biography.

2. Who are Arabella Sezen Oz’s parents?

Her parents are Dr. Mehmet Oz and Lisa Oz. Mehmet Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon and television personality, while Lisa Oz is an author and media personality. Arabella is one of their four children.

3. What movies has Arabella Oz appeared in?

Arabella Oz has appeared in projects including When the Starlight Ends, Hunter’s Cove, Jigsaw, and Our House. She also appears in Mallory’s Ghost, a feature film for which she is credited as director and screenwriter.

4. Did Arabella Oz study acting?

Yes. TheWrap reported that Arabella was a graduate of Columbia’s drama program when she was cast in When the Starlight Ends. Her later credits show that her interest expanded from acting into writing and directing.

5. What is Arabella Oz doing now?

Her recent professional work has focused heavily on filmmaking. In 2026, Mallory’s Ghost was included in SXSW’s Narrative Feature Competition, with Arabella credited as its director and screenwriter. SXSW also states that she wrote the film while working as a mental health counselor in Manhattan, reflecting the two major professional interests that have shaped her career.