The film stars Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls, Morgan Spector, Rose Decker, and Leslie Uggams.

Aisha is hired as a nanny for Rose, the young daughter of Amy and Adam Hav, a wealthy white couple who live on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

She and Rose become very close, while Amy and Adam are distracted by their careers, often causing Aisha to have to stay late – or even overnight – when neither parent returns home.

On April 13, 2021, it was announced that Nikyatu Jusu would make her directorial debut with Nanny,[2] a film that she wrote and is part of the 2020 The Black List of screenplays that would not be released in theaters during that calendar year.

[3][4] In June 2021, Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls, Morgan Spector, Zephani Idoko and Phylicia Rashad joined the cast of the film.

[12] In March 2022, Amazon Studios and Blumhouse Productions acquired distribution rights to the film in a deal around $7 million, winning them in a competitive situation that also included Sony Pictures Classics and Neon.

Jason Blum, who joined the film as an executive producer post-acquisition, remarked: "We're proud to have writer/director Nikyatu Jusu's Nanny as part of our slate for Amazon.

It's a gem of a horror film that combines impressive filmmaking and powerful storytelling, and is worthy of the Grand Jury Prize it was awarded at Sundance."

The website's consensus reads: "Led by Anna Diop's strong central performance, the smartly disquieting Nanny is a promising debut for writer-director Nikyatu Jusu.