My Top Favorite Female Movie Directors
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Sierra Ditson Moselle (born August 1, 1980), better known as Crystal Moselle, is an American filmmaker, best known for her debut film, The Wolfpack a documentary on the Angulo brothers.
Born Sierra Ditson Moselle, in San Francisco, she attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California, graduating in 1998. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
In 2010 Moselle was walking around New York City, where she worked and lived, when she was struck by six brothers with an unusual appearance. Introducing herself to them she began bonding over their shared love of movies. She began filming them and after a year learned that they had spent the majority of their lives stuck in a small four bedroom apartment due to their abusive father's paranoia of the outside world. Moselle completed her documentary on the brothers, entitled The Wolfpack in 2015. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize.
In 2016 Moselle was approached by Miu Miu to direct a short for their Women's Tales series in which female directors were given carte blanche to make short films as long as they featured Miu Miu clothing. Moselle, who had been collaborating with teenage skater girls she had met in a park, decided to film them for her short That One Day. The short premiered at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.
Moselle used many of the same actors she filmed for That One Day in her 2018 film Skate Kitchen. The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.Skate Kitchen- Producer
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Kay Cannon is a screenwriter, actress and producer, best known for Pitch Perfect (2012), Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), and Pitch Perfect 3 (2017). She is also known for her work on NBC's 30 Rock (2006) and the Netflix Original Series Girlboss (2017).
Cannon has won three Writers Guild of America Awards and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.Blockers- Actress
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Quinn Shephard is a writer, director and actress based out of the New York area, with a career spanning two decades. At age 15, Shephard began writing her debut feature Blame (2017), inspired by playing Abigail Williams in a New Jersey regional production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. She went on to direct, produce, edit, and star in the film at age 20. It premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, making Shephard the youngest female filmmaker ever to screen a feature there. Shephard is a 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 Listmaker and in 2019 received a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay for Blame.Blame- Actress
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Polly Carey Draper is an award-winning actress, writer, producer, and director. She was born on June 15, 1955 in Gary, Indiana, USA, to Phyllis (Culbertson), a Peace Corps administrator, and William Henry Draper III, who was the CEO of the United Nations. She is most known for her work on Thirtysomething (1987), Heartbeat (1993), The Tic Code (1998), Getting Into Heaven (2003), The Naked Brothers Band (2007), Stella's Last Weekend (2018), and Once Upon a Main Street (2020). Draper married jazz pianist Michael Wolff in 1992. They have two children together, actor/musicians Nat Wolff and Alex Wolff.Stella's Last Weekend- Actress
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Judy Greer was born and raised outside of Detroit, Michigan, as Judith Therese Evans. She is the daughter of Mollie Ann (née Greer), a hospital administrator and former nun, and Richard Evans, a mechanical engineer. She has German, Irish, English, Welsh, and Scottish ancestry. After training for nearly ten years in classical Russian ballet, Greer shifted her interest to acting and was accepted into Chicago's prestigious Theatre School at DePaul University.
After a variety of odd jobs during college, from telemarketer to oyster shucker, Greer landed her first on-screen role just three days after graduation -- a small part in the Jason Lee-David Schwimmer comedy Kissing a Fool (1998). She flew to Los Angeles for the film's premiere and never left. Greer quickly landed a role in the dark comedy Jawbreaker (1999), with Rose McGowan and Rebecca Gayheart. Greer starred as a school wallflower-turned-babe in a story about high school girls who accidentally kill their best friend and try to cover up the murder.
She went on to play a news correspondent in David O. Russell's Three Kings (1999), landing a memorable opening love scene with George Clooney. Her performance caught the eye of Hollywood, and she appeared next in Mike Nichols's What Planet Are You From? (2000) as a flight attendant opposite Garry Shandling. Her television credits include a recurring role as Jason Bateman's assistant Kitty on Fox's Arrested Development (2003), as well as guest-starring roles on Love & Money (1999), Maggie Winters (1998), and Early Edition (1996).
Greer starred opposite Jennifer Garner in Columbia Pictures' romantic comedy 13 Going on 30 (2004), directed by Gary Winick. Greer played an office colleague alongside Garner's character, with whom she shares a checkered past.
She co-starred in writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (2004), opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sigourney Weaver, and William Hurt. Set in 1897, the film revolves around a close-knit community that lives with the knowledge that a mythical race of creatures resides in the woods surrounding them. The Village (2004) was released July 30, 2004, by Touchtone Pictures. Greer also co-starred in director Wes Craven's Cursed (2005), a modern twist on the classic werewolf tale written by Kevin Williamson. The busy actress also landed a co-starring role opposite Orlando Bloom and Susan Sarandon in writer-director Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown (2005), playing the sister of Bloom's character and daughter of Sarandon's character.
She also joined Jeff Bridges and Jeanne Tripplehorn in the independent film The Amateurs (2005) by writer-director Michael Traeger. The film revolves around a motley group of friends who band together to make an amateur porn film. Greer plays a young temptress at the local mattress store who secures a role in the movie by allowing the store to be used as a film location.
Greer wrapped production in New York on a co-starring role opposite Tom McCarthy ("The Station Agent") in Danny Leiner's The Great New Wonderful (2005) for Serenade Films/Sly Dog Films. The dark comedy tells five different stories against the backdrop of an uncertain post-September 11 New York. The cast also includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Edie Falco and Tony Shalhoub.
She also appeared in writer-director Adam Goldberg's psychological drama I Love Your Work (2003), opposite Giovanni Ribisi. The film is about a fictional movie star (Ribisi) and his gradual meltdown and increasing obsession with a young film student and his girlfriend. The stellar cast also included Franka Potente, Christina Ricci, and Jason Lee and debuted at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. In the film, Greer plays Samantha, the personal assistant of Ribisi's character.
Greer had a starring role as the female lead role in the comedy The Hebrew Hammer (2003) as the feisty, fearless Esther, who joins forces with an Orthodox Jewish Blaxploitation hero (Adam Goldberg) to save Hanukkah from an evil son of Santa Claus (Andy Dick). The Hebrew Hammer (2003) debuted at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and premiered on Comedy Central followed by a theatrical release.
She also appeared in Adaptation. (2002), from director Spike Jonze. In the film, Nicolas Cage stars as self-loathing writer Charlie Kaufman (and twin brother Donald) as he attempts to adapt the novel "The Orchid Thief" for the big screen. Greer played Alice, the waitress with whom he becomes obsessed -- the object of his fantasies.
Greer turned in a scene-stealing comedic performance in The Wedding Planner (2001), with Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey, in which she played Penny, Lopez's sweet but ditsy assistant who tries hard, but often falls a little short. Equally adept at more dramatic roles, Greer gave a standout performance opposite Mel Gibson in What Women Want (2000), playing a suicidal file clerk rescued by the one man who can hear women's thoughts. Greer's pivotal scene with Gibson is the heart of the film.
With a genuine gift for comedy and an engaging on-screen presence, Judy Greer has quickly become one of Hollywood's most captivating talents. Having appeared in such diverse films as Jawbreaker (1999), What Women Want (2000), The Wedding Planner (2001), Adaptation. (2002), and Wilson (2017) as well as a number of upcoming feature film projects, Greer turns in scene-stealing performances opposite some of the industry's biggest stars.a Happening of Monumental Proportions- Actress
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Lea Katherine Thompson was born May 31, 1961 in Rochester, Minnesota. She is the youngest of five children. Her parents are Barbara and Cliff Thompson. Since all her siblings were much older than her, Lea says it seemed like she had more than two parents. The family lived in the Starlight motel, all the kids sharing a room. Things began to look up for the family when Lea's father got a job in Minneapolis, where the family moved.
Lea's parents divorced when she was six, and her mother decided to maintain the family. This wasn't the easiest job, considering her mother was alcohol-addicted at the time. When she found the strength to quit drinking, she took a job playing the piano and singing in a bar to support Lea and her siblings. When Lea was seven, her mother remarried. Ever since Lea was little, she loved to dance -- ballet to be exact. She would practice three to four hours every day. Her first role was as a mouse in "The Nutcracker". After Lea turned fourteen, she had performed in more than 45 ballets on stages, such as The Minnesota Dance Theatre, The Pennsylvania Ballet Company, and The Ballet Repertory. She won scholarships to The American Ballet Theatre and The San Francisco Ballet. At age nineteen, she auditioned for Mikhail Baryshnikov, who later told her that she was "a beautiful dancer... but too stocky." Lea knew her dreams had been crushed. At that point, she decided to turn to acting. She began working as a waitress, also making 22 Burger King commercials and a few Twix commercials. She was perfect for these parts simply because she was the average girl-down-the-street, from the Midwest. Everyone who knows her can't believe she was and still is so completely different...trying to be independent and fight against the system. In 1982, Lea made some type of a computer game or interactive movie known as "Murder, Anyone."
Her first role was in the movie, Jaws 3-D (1983), as a water ski bunny, although she couldn't swim or ski, which she still can't! There, she met Dennis Quaid, who became her fiancée and acting coach. Her next role was in All the Right Moves (1983), where she acted opposite Tom Cruise. Director Michael Chapman was so disappointed with her performance, that he almost fired her. Between 1983 and 1984, Lea appeared in other "teen" movies, such as Red Dawn (1984), The Wild Life (1984), and Going Undercover (aka Going Undercover (1985)), and believes it was lucky that, in these movies, they were able to use anyone who could walk and talk! Lea's biggest known accomplishment, and her big break, came from the first Back to the Future (1985). It was the biggest hit of 1985, and Lea was suddenly the most wanted actress. She could have her pick of any role she wanted to take on. She chose Howard the Duck (1986). Although it was a George Lucas production, the critics turned the movie, and Lea, down. Afterwards, director Howard Deutch offered Lea a part in his movie, Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), but she refused. After he urged her to do it, she reconsidered. She won the Young Artist Award for best young actress. During filming, Howard and Lea fell in love, and she called it off with Dennis. She then went on to film The Wizard of Loneliness (1988), which was her first movie as a woman, rather than a youngster. Lea went on to film Back to the Future Part II (1989) and an episode of Tales from the Crypt (1989). She then married Howard Deutch. She continued filming Back to the Future Part III (1990), Montana (1990), and Article 99 (1992). Lea then took a break to stay home with her first born, Madelyn Deutch.
She jumped back into acting in Dennis the Menace (1993), where she says she just played herself. Then it was on to The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), Stolen Babies (1993), The Little Rascals (1994), and The Substitute Wife (1994). In 1994, she had her second child, Zoey Deutch. Lea then went into filming The Unspoken Truth (1995). It was then that she was first given the script of a new NBC sitcom, Caroline in the City (1995). It was probably the best decision Lea ever made. She won a People's choice Award for best actress in a new sitcom. Unfortunately, with all of NBC's problems, Caroline in the City (1995) kept being moved to a worse and worse time slot, giving it horrible ratings. The show ended after only four seasons. Bad ideas from the creators (Julia, etc.) didn't help, either.
Lea quickly went onto The Right to Remain Silent (1996), The Unknown Cyclist (1998), and A Will of Their Own (1998). She also guest-starred in the Friends (1994) episode, The One with the Baby on the Bus (1995), as "Caroline Duffy," and on The Larry Sanders Show (1992). Lea also did some stage work, including starring as "Sally Bowles" in "Cabaret." The show toured and also appeared on Broadway. She then did "The Vagina Monologues" in L.A. She had a stint in a dramatic role as a Chief Deputy Assistant District Attorney, "Camille Paris," on For the People (2002).
Thompson has starred in more than 30 films, 25 television movies, 4 television series, more than 20 ballets, and starred on Broadway in "Cabaret." Lea can currently be seen on ABC Family's Peabody Award winning hit show "Switched at Birth," where she acts and directs. Lea's movie credits include: "All the Right Moves," "Red Dawn," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Howard The Duck," (star and vocals) Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar," the 2014 Sundance favorite Ping Pong Summer (2014), Fliegen (2005) starring Nicolas Cage, and The Year of Spectacular Men (2017), a film written by her daughter Madelyn Deutch. Thompson partnered with international Mirrorball Trophy holder Artem Chigvintsev on the 19th season of Dancing with the Stars (2005), placing sixth.
Lea lives in Los Angeles with her husband of over thirty years, film/television director Howard Deutch, and their two talented daughters, Madelyn and Zoey Deutch, along with many dogs, fish, horses, chickens, a cat, tortoise, and parrot. She supports and often performs for breast cancer, mental health, and Alzheimer's charities. Lea is currently writing her first book of essays.The Year of Spectacular Man- Director
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Marina Zenovich is an American filmmaker known for her biographical documentaries. Her films include Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which won two Emmy awards. Zenovich was born in Fresno, California. She is the daughter of George N. Zenovich, a former California State Senator and Judge, and Vera "Kika"" Zenovich, who was born in Yugoslavia. Her sister is actress Ninon Zenovich (aka Ninon Aprea). The Fifth District Court of Appeals Courthouse in Fresno is named after her father. When he passed away in 2013, she made a film for the memorial service to celebrate his life.
Zenovich first studied drama at the University of Southern California and then switched majors, graduating with a degree in Journalism. During college, she worked for Hollywood producer Mike Frankovich and also in the press department of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. Following graduation, Zenovich moved to New York City, where she acted in short films and off-Broadway plays. Zenovich studied acting at the William Esper Studio in Manhattan, furthering her studies with Ron Burrus and Stella Adler. She later acted in several movies including Robert Altman's The Player and actress Talia Shire's One Night Stand. Zenovich's voiceover work includes Alex Gibney's Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. She is also the voice of a rubber band in the 2011 children's film Bands on the Run. In 1997, Zenovich began working as a segment producer on John Pierson's TV series Split Screen, which was broadcast on the Independent Film Channel. Due to her work on Split Screen, she became interested in becoming a director and working on feature documentaries.
Marina's Films Include The Critically Acclaimed Fantastic Lies -- About The Duke Lacrosse Scandal - Widely Considered One Of The Best Episodes Of Espn's "30 For 30". (Sxsw 2016); Water And Power: A California Heist For National Geographic (Sundance Film Festival 2017); Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic (Tribeca Film Festival 2013, Naacp Image Award Winner For Best Tv Documentary); Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired (Sundance And Cannes Film Festivals 2008, Emmy Winner, Outstanding Directing For Nonfiction Programming And Outstanding Writing For Nonfiction Programming) For Hbo; And Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out (Toronto And New York Film Festivals 2012) For Showtime. Her Upcoming Documentary Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (Sundance Film Festival 2018) Will Premiere On Hbo In July.Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mine- Actress
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Marielle Heller is a writer, director and actor. She was selected as a 2012 Sundance Screenwriting Fellow and 2012 Sundance Directing Fellow, and was honored with the Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship, and The Maryland Film Festival Fellowship. Her writing credits include pilots for ABC and 20th Century Fox, and multiple screenplays and theatrical plays. She has performed at theaters all over the world, from New York to the West End.Can You Ever Forgive Me?- Director
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Debra Granik (born February 6, 1963) is an American New York City-based independent film and documentary film director and screenwriter. She is most known for 2004's Down to the Bone, which starred Vera Farmiga, 2010's Winter's Bone, which starred Jennifer Lawrence in her breakout performance and for which Granik was nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and 2018's Leave No Trace, a film based on the book My Abandonment by Peter Rock.
Granik was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to father William R. Granik, who was an attorney with H.U.D. who litigated fair housing, and mother Marian Gay. She grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. Granik is the granddaughter of broadcast pioneer Ted Granik (1907-1970), founder and moderator of the long-run public affairs panel discussion program, The American Forum of the Air, on from 1934 to 1956, first on the radio and later on television. Granik is from a Jewish family.
In 1985, Granik received her B.A. in political science from Brandeis University. As an undergraduate at Brandeis, Granik also took classes at the Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art. In 2001, Granik received an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
While at Brandeis, Granik took Henry Felt's film and media workshop production class and volunteered with the Boston grassroots filmmaking organization Women's Video Collective. She also took film classes at the Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art. During this time, Granik made educational films for trade unions on subjects like workplace health and safety, one of which was made for the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety. Granik worked in production on educational media projects, eventually working on long form documentaries by Boston-area filmmakers before deciding to go to graduate school for filmmaking at New York University.
In 1997, Granik directed her first short film, Snake Feed, as her senior thesis with the mentorship of NYU film professor Boris Frumin, who was instrumental in sharing his love of post-World War II European neorealist films. Snake Feed, which began its life as a 7-minute documentary portrait exercise, was accepted into Sundance Institute's Lab Program for screenwriting and directing. Granik workshopped and developed the short film into a feature film at the Sundance Lab. Granik has said that Snake Feed was a work of narrative fiction, with the main characters, recovering addict Irene and her boyfriend Rick, playing dramatized versions of themselves.
In 2004, the short film of Snake Feed and the story of Irene and Rick became the basis of Granik's first feature-length film, Down to the Bone, which was a fictionalized depiction of their struggles. Down to the Bone is the story of an upstate New York mother who goes to rehab to kick her cocaine addiction and ends up falling in love with a nurse and descending back into her old drug habits. Down to the Bone was based on an original screenplay written by Granik and her creative partner, Anne Rosellini. The role of the main character Irene, played by Vera Farmiga, significantly raised Farmiga's profile as an actor. Down to the Bone was shot in Ulster County in upstate New York.
Granik's second feature, 2010's Winter's Bone, was an adaptation by Granik and Rosellini of the 2006 novel by Daniel Woodrell. It is the story of Ree Dolly, a teenager living in the Missouri's Ozark Mountains who is the sole caretaker of her two younger siblings and her catatonic mother. She is forced to hunt down her missing drug-dealing father in order to save her family from eviction.
The film starred a then-unknown Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes and won the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, which led to a distribution deal with Roadside Attractions. Winter's Bone won the Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Director and Best Actress award for Jennifer Lawrence. In 2011, Winter's Bone was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence and Best Supporting Actor for John Hawkes. The film featured a soundtrack made up of old time gospel, bluegrass, and traditional music found in the Ozarks and was produced by Steve Peters. It features the singing of Marideth Sisco, who worked as a music and folklore consultant for the region, and also appeared in the Winter's Bone. The actor John Hawkes sings one track on the soundtrack.
Winter's Bone was shot on location in the Ozark area of southern Missouri. Granik cast many of the supporting roles with first-time actors from the surrounding area and all of the homes on screen were established Ozark homes-no sets were built for this film. For the look of the film, Granik kept most of the established aesthetics of the homes in which they were shooting and many of the few mementos that were added to the homes were contributed by Ozark people in the community.
Granik produced and directed an HBO television pilot called American High Life. The show was a family drama that "follows a young career woman to her economically depressed small home town in the midwest."The show was not picked up.
Granik developed a film adaption of Rule of the Bone, the 1995 novel by Russell Banks, but the project is still in development.
In 2014, Granik's film, Stray Dog, was released. The film is a documentary about a man named Ron Hall, whose nickname is "Stray Dog," and portrays his life as an avid biker and Vietnam Veteran who sometimes struggles with PTSD. The film documents Hall's participation in an annual pilgrimage motorcycle ride called "Ride to the Wall" with fellow biker Vietnam vets from all over the country where they ride to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Granik had met Hall, who had a small role on Winter's Bone, during filming.
Granik directed the drama Leave No Trace, starring Ben Foster and newcomer Thomasin McKenzie, which was released in 2018, domestically by Bleecker Street and internationally by Sony Worldwide Acquisitions. The film tells the story of a father and daughter who illegally live on government land and are forced to adapt to more traditional living in mainstream life. It examines ideas of self-reliance and community, and was a critics' pick of The New York Times. Leave No Trace premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and played at the Cannes Film Festival, and was shot in the forested areas of Oregon, including Forest Park near Portland, Oregon, over the course of 30 days. In addition to Oregon, Washington state was used for locations, with some scenes shot at a Christmas tree farm. Leave No Trace took approximately three and a half years to develop, from the first time Granik read Peter Rock's novel, My Abandonment, on which the film was based.
Other projects Granik has in development include a documentary about life after being released from jail and the subject of recidivism in East Baltimore - that was to feature Felicia "Snoop" Pearson from The Wire and elements of her memoir, Grace After Midnight - but is now a documentary about four former inmates in New York City.
Another project is a film based on Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, which focuses on poverty and the working poor in AmericaLeave No Trace- Actress
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Elizabeth Chomko is an American director, writer and actor. She is a 2016 Sundance lab fellow and in 2015 won an Academy Nicholl Fellowship for What They Had (2018), which she directed and premiered at 2018 Sundance Film Festival and TIFF. She is also a playwright and theatre actress, and has appeared in television and film roles on Terriers (2010), Common Law (2012), and South Boston Legal (2014) among others. She is originally from Chicago, Illinois.What They Had- Writer
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Hannah Fidell was born on 7 October 1985 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for A Teacher (2013), A Teacher (2020) and 6 Years (2015). She has been married to Jake Longstreth since 23 September 2017.The Long Dumb Road- Writer
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Abby Kohn was born on 9 April 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for I Feel Pretty (2018), How to Be Single (2016) and He's Just Not That Into You (2009).I Feel Pretty- Director
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Lynne Ramsay was born on 5 December 1969 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. She is a director and writer, known for You Were Never Really Here (2017), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and Ratcatcher (1999). She was previously married to Rory Stewart Kinnear.You Were Never Really Here- Producer
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Jennifer Fox is known for The Tale (2018), My Reincarnation (2011) and Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (2006).The Tale- Writer
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Susanna Fogel was born on 8 October 1980 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Booksmart (2019), The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018) and The Flight Attendant (2020).The Spy Who Dumped Me- Director
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Claire Scanlon directs single cam comedies for both network and cable. She started her career editing documentaries for PBS and the Discovery Channel. After supervising post and producing Last Comic Standing, she joined The Office in its fifth season. After directing The Office, Claire transitioned over to directing full time in 2013.Set It Up- Producer
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Elizabeth Rohrbaugh is an Emmy Award winning film and TV director. She spent ten years as a director, writer and editor at MTV Networks and is now the creative director of Outer Borough Pictures. Elizabeth is in the process of completing a narrative film "Becks," which she co-directed with Dan Powell, (co-creator, Inside Amy Schumer) and co-wrote with Dan Powell and Rebecca Drysdale (Key and Peele.) The film stars Lena Hall, Mena Suvari, Dan Fogler and Christine Lahti. She also recently served as an executive producer of the Complex series, Thanksgiving, starring Chris Elliott and Amy Sedaris, and co-directed an episode with show creator, Dan Powell. You can watch this episode, Beer Run, on Go90.
Her feature-length documentary "The Perfect Victim" aired on World Channel/PBS in the documentary series America Reframed following a successful festival run and was a finalist for a Silver Gavel Award. Her short film "Dylan" screened at Outfest Los Angeles, St. Louis International Film Festival, Boston LGBT Film Festival, Queer Fest, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, MIX Copenhagen, Newfest, the Citizen Jane Film Festival, the Berlin Feminist Film Festival, the Mardi Gras Film Festival (Sidney, Australia) and Love: A Collection of LGBT Shorts (University of Edinburgh.) The film was a Vimeo Short Of The Week and a Vimeo Staff Pick. Other clients include LOGO, Comedy Central, Paramount, and VH1.
Prior to independent filmmaking, Elizabeth was a writer, director and editor at MTV in the on-air promos department. During her time at MTV, she wrote and directed many high profile campaigns including The Hills, The City, The Real World (multiple seasons) The MTV Movie Awards, Hustle and Flow, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, and Kotex. She received an Emmy Award for her HIV prevention campaign for The Kaiser Foundation, and multiple CTAM Awards.Becks- Writer
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Shana Feste was born on 28 August 1976 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a writer and director, known for Dirty Diana (2020), Endless Love (2014) and The Greatest (2009).Boundaries- Director
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Desiree Akhavan was born on 27 December 1984 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a director and actress, known for Appropriate Behavior (2014), The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) and The Bisexual (2018).The Miseducation of Cameron Post- Actress
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Mélanie Laurent was born in Paris, France. She is the daughter of Annick, a ballet teacher, and Pierre, a voice actor, who is most recognized for the French version of The Simpsons (1989). She has a younger brother, Mathieu, and has both Sephardi Jewish (from Tunisia) and Ashkenazi Jewish (from Poland) ancestry. In 1998, Laurent was visiting the set of Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999) with a friend when she caught the attention of Gérard Depardieu. He offered her a role in his next film The Bridge (1999). She only played a small role, but it was enough to further Mélanie's interest in acting.Galveston- Director
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In 2011 Ergüven was invited to attend the Cannes Film Festivals Atelier to help develop her project, The Kings. While there she met fellow director Alice Winocour who was there to develop her first feature film Augustine. After Ergüven was unable to find financing for her film Winocour suggested she write a more intimate piece leading the two to begin work on the script for Mustang.
Her debut film Mustang premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Europa Cinemas Label Award. It later played in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards It was later shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Ergüven was also nominated for multiple César Awards, winning the César Award for Best First Feature Film as well as the César Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Ergüven was the first person surprised by the film's overwhelmingly positive welcome. "During Cannes I was telling this joke: Tuesday we'll show the movie, Wednesday we'll talk to the press, Thursday we'll be old news. But that Thursday never came! We're still Wednesday and it's just getting more intense.", she says.Kings- Director
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Eva Vives was born in Madrid, Spain. She is a director and writer, known for All About Nina (2018).All About Nina- Director
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Josie is the Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse. Her productions have transferred to Broadway, the West-End and won Olivier Awards. Her shows have been translated into live cinema broadcasts, including Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston, Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Janet McTeer and Dominic West, and Saint Joan with Gemma Arterton. Her U.K. Election Night Broadcast of the play, The Vote, which she co-created with writer James Graham and directed, in real time, starred Dame Judi Dench. The Vote was nominated for a BAFTA for "Best Live Event". She was previously Artistic Director of The Bush Theatre, where she produced the first and early plays of (amongst other writers) James Graham, Lucy Kirkwood, Nick Payne, Steve Waters, Penelope Skinner, Jack Thorne and Anthony Weigh. Her other work as a director includes Shakespeare productions for The Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West-End and work in Chicago and New York on Broadway, at The Public Theater and at the Park Avenue Armory with Matt Charman's play, The Machine. She succeeded Sam Mendes and Michael Grandage as Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse and she is the first woman director to run a major London theatre.Mary Queen of Scots- Director
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Wolf, born and raised in Louisiana, has been a working screenwriter and feature film director in Los Angeles for the past 15 years. She began her career in the indie world, co-writing the controversial short "Don's Plum" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
Wolf then wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning short films "The Burgundy Room" and "Wait", followed by her first theatrical feature, the Cajun drama "Little Chenier" which won 10 Best Picture Awards, 6 International Best American Film Awards during its festival run followed by its theatrical release.
Wolf has had numerous screenwriting assignments for both studio and independent companies, including "Other People's Love Letters" (CBS Films & Laurence Mark Productions), "Time Between Us" (CBS Films & Robin Schorr Productions), "The Pilgrimmage of Layla Quinn" (Lifetime & Wendy Riche Productions), "On the 12th Day" (Radio London Films) and the screenplay "Bullrider".
Wolf also wrote the original screenplay "Love Scene" a biopic that chronicles the 25-year love affair of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Wolf wrote and directed a short film of the same name that won 8 Best Short, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actress awards worldwide on its international festival run.
Wolf recently wrote and directed the feature film "Forever My Girl" for LD Entertainment, Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate accompanied by a country star soundtrack that Wolf developed herself.
Wolf is currently working on two docuseries with ITV that are filming in Nashville along with writing & directing a series of lyrical novellas for well-known musical artists.Forever My Girl- Actress
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Heather Joan Graham was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Joan (Bransfield), a schoolteacher and children's book author, and James Graham, an FBI agent. She and her sister, actress Aimee Graham, were raised by their strictly Catholic parents. They relocated often, as a result of their father's occupation, and Heather became increasingly shy. Surprisingly, she had a passion for acting from an early age and despite being labeled a 'theater geek' by her peers, she was voted Most Talented by her high school senior class. Unfortunately, her love of acting created a tension between Heather and her family although her mother obligingly drove her to auditions in Hollywood throughout her adolescence.
After high school Heather moved to Los Angeles and received small roles in a variety of films including Drugstore Cowboy (1989). When her career did not take off as quickly as was hoped, Heather enrolled in the University of California at Los Angeles to get her degree in drama. It was at UCLA that she was noticed by actor James Woods and received a subsequent part in a film Woods starred in, Diggstown (1992). Heather dropped out of UCLA after two years to pursue her acting career on a full time basis. Aside from gaining a modeling contract with Emanuel Ungaro Liberte, Heather has risen to star in such films as Swingers (1996), a role she received after being taken out swing dancing by Jon Favreau, to blockbusters like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and Boogie Nights (1997).Half Magic- Writer
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Sophie Brooks' first short film, Malcolm, won second place at NYU's New Visions and Voices Festival. Her subsequent film, Maple Leaves, premiered at The Palm Springs International Short Film Festival in 2014. The Boy Downstairs is her first feature.
The Boy Downstairs will premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival on April 23.The Boy Downstairs- Producer
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- Actress
Vanessa Parise is a director, actor, and writer. Named one of "Ten Female Directors Breaking Stereotypes" by SheKnows, Vanessa grew up one of five children in a large, extended, multi-ethnic family, which inspired Kiss the Bride (2002).
Parise graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in Biology, and was accepted to Harvard Medical School. Instead, she attended a summer program at Circle in the Square in New York City and was invited to enter their two-year theatre program. She took a deferment from HMS and has never looked back.
While at Circle, Parise dove into the Off-Broadway theatre scene, earning honors in the New York Times for her performance of Sarah in "Seascape"). Upon graduating, she headed to Hollywood without any ties or connections, where she wrote, directed, produced and starred in Lo and Jo (1998), a short film which won various awards and accolades. Kiss The Bride was her first feature as director/actor/producer/writer. The film won Best Actress for Parise at Cinequest, Best Feature Film for Parise as writer/producer/director at the Hamptons, Sarasota, and Rhode Island, Best Actress (Talia Shire) and Best Score (Jeremy Parise) at Monte Carlo,, Best Actress (Francis Bay) at Torino, and the list goes on.
Most recently, Parise directed Tim Kring's one-hour supernatural drama Beyond for Freeform. She also directed the high-profile Simone Biles biopic, which just premiered to extremely strong ratings on Lifetime and NBC. Parise has directed multiple episodes of Just Add Magic for Amazon and multiples of MC2 for Netflix. She also directed the edgy, highly-acclaimed television movie Perfect High (Bella Thorne), thrillers #Popfan (Chelsea Kane) and Status Unknown, and the comedic Unauthorized Beverly Hills 90210 Story.
Parise was selected for the inaugural year of Fox's prestigious Global Diversity Initiative. She received a 2016 Leo Nomination for Best Direction of Perfect High and a 2015 Leo Nomination for Best Direction of #Popfan. She was honored by Lifetime with their Broad Focus Top 5 Original Movies.The Simone Biles Story- Actress
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Jennifer Marie Morrison was born in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest child of teachers David and Judy Morrison. She was raised in Arlington Heights, IL, with a younger sister and brother. She attended the same school her parents taught at, Prospect High School. As a child, she did some work as a model. After graduating from high school, she attended Loyola University in Chicago, where she studied Theater and English. She then moved on to study at the Steppenwolf Theater Company, before relocating to Los Angeles, California to pursue her acting career. Morrison's movie debut came in 1994, playing the daughter of Richard Gere and Sharon Stone in Intersection (1994). Success followed with various film and television roles, including the lead in Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000). She came to wide scale public attention in 2004 for her role as Dr. Allison Cameron in the television series House (2004), for which she was nominated for a prestigious Screen Actors Guild Award. Since leaving "House M.D.", her career has continued to progress with roles in Star Trek (2009), How I Met Your Mother (2005) and Warrior (2011).Sun Dogs