Bravo was born in New York City, the daughter of Ana María Ford and Rafael Ángel Landers.

[7][8][2] Several years after college, she moved to Los Angeles, worked as a stylist and produced small theater productions before she was approached by a cinematographer who offered assistance with filmmaking.

[15] The film was inspired by the death of a cousin, visiting from Panama, who in the summer of 1999 was asphyxiated by the police in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn is a case of mistaken identity.

[16] In 2016, Bravo directed her first feature, an independent film called Lemon, which she co-wrote with then-husband Brett Gelman.

[5][19] The film stars Gelman, Michael Cera, and Judy Greer, and includes performances by Nia Long, Fred Melamed, Shiri Appleby, Rhea Perlman, David Paymer, Gillian Jacobs, Megan Mullally, Martin Starr, Jeff Garlin, and Marla Gibbs.

[22] The film is based on a 148-tweet thread by Detroit waitress Aziah "Zola" Wells about a trip she took to Florida with a sex worker named Jessica.

[5][23] Zola had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Award.

[24] In 2022, Bravo was one of nine directors commissioned to design a series of rooms at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art for the exhibition In America: An Anthology of Fashion.