Female Directors from Past & Present
Not particular order.
List activity
3.7K views
• 22 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
223 people
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Writer/director Lone Scherfig graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 1984. Her first feature film, THE BIRTHDAY TRIP (1990), was selected for Panorama in Berlin, the New Directors section at MOMA in New York and won the Grand Jury Prix in Rouen. Her next film, ON OUR OWN (1998), received the Grand Prix in Montreal and the Cinekid Prize in Amsterdam. Scherfig then wrote and directed ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS (2000; the Danish 'Dogma' #5), which was a huge audience hit and won her the Silver Bear and the international film critics' award FIPRESCI at the 2001 Berlinale, plus numerous other awards around the world.
Scherfig's first English-language feature, WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF (2002), toured the festival circuit and brought home awards from e.g. France, the US and Japan. Her next production, AN EDUCATION (2009), won the Audience Award at Sundance and was nominated for three Oscars and eight BAFTAs. Scherfig has since directed three British films, i.e. ONE DAY (2011), THE RIOT CLUB (2014) and THEIR FINEST (2016) which premiered at TIFF in 2016 and screened in Sundance and London as the Mayor's gala. In 2019, Lone Scherfig's The Kindness of Strangers opened and was in competition at Berlin International Film Festival.
In between features Scherfig has directed a range of TV-series, including TAXA (1997), QUIET WATERS (1999), BETTER TIMES (2004) and, most recently, THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB (2015; conceptualised by Scherfig).An Education (2009)
One Day (2011)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Sam Taylor-Johnson was born on 4 March 1967 in London, England, UK. She is a director and producer, known for Nowhere Boy (2009), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) and Love You More (2008). She has been married to Aaron Taylor-Johnson since 21 June 2012. They have two children. She was previously married to Jay Jopling.Nowhere Boy (2009)
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Lisa Cholodenko earned an MFA at Columbia University Film School where she made an award-winning short film Dinner Party (1997) Her feature High Art (1998) won the National Society of Film Critics award for Ally Sheedy's performance and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting award at Sundance. Both "High Art" and Laurel Canyon (2002) premiered at Cannes Director's Fortnight.High Art (1998)
Laurel Canyon (2002)
The Kids Are All Right (2010)- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Susanna White is a BAFTA winning British film and television director. She attended Bromley High School and Oxford University before being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study on the MFA Program at UCLA. Her work ranges from the hard-hitting HBO mini-series Generation Kill about the US invasion of Iraq and the John Le Carre thriller Our Kind of Traitor, to the CGI world of family film Nanny McPhee Returns with Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dame Maggie Smith. She collaborated with Tom Stoppard on the mini-series Parades End (with Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall and Adelaide Clemens) and brought Ruth Wilson to the screen in another Emmy nominated mini-series Jane Eyre. Her early work includes the award-winning documentaries Volvo City (about the Hasidic Jewish community of London's Stamford Hill) and Tell Me The Truth About Love about the poet WH Auden. Her first screen drama was about another poet, Philip Larkin, Love Again, starring Hugh Bonneville, Tara Fitzgerald and Eileen Atkins and was made for only £200,000. The film appears to be much bigger budget than it was thanks to heavy snow in London during shooting which masked non-period detail on the streets.Bleak House (2005) (TV)
Jane Eyre (2006) (mini)
Nanny McPhee Returns (2010)
Our Kind of Traitor (2016)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
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.We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Jennifer Lee was born on 22 October 1971 in Barrington, Rhode Island, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Frozen (2013), Frozen II (2019) and Wreck-It Ralph (2012). She has been married to Alfred Molina since August 2021. She was previously married to Robert Joseph Monn.Frozen (2013)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Mary Harron (born January 12, 1953) is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter. She gained recognition for her role in writing and directing several independent films, including I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), American Psycho (2000), and The Notorious Bettie Page (2005). She co-wrote American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page with Guinevere Turner. Although Harron has denied this title, she has been thought to be feminist filmmaker due to her film on lesbian feminist Valerie Solanas, in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), and a queer story-line within her teenage Gothic horror, The Moth Diaries (2011).I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
American Psycho (2000)
The Notorious Bettie Page (2006)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have built an impressive body of work by perpetually seeking innovative projects in a variety of mediums.
After introducing bands such as REM and The Red Hot Chili Peppers on their ground breaking MTV show The Cutting Edge, Jonathan and Valerie continued to work in music television directing music videos and documentaries for bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Jane's Addiction, Macy Gray, Janet Jackson, Oasis, Weezer, and The Ramones. Their music productions have earned them two Grammy Awards, nine MTV Music Video Awards, and a Billboard Music "Director of the Year" Award.
In 1998, Jonathan and Valerie co-founded Bob Industries, one of the country's leading commercial production companies. Directing commercials for VW, Sony Playstation, Gap, Target, Ikea, Apple, ESPN amongst others, Dayton and Faris continue to push the medium into new vistas. In 2002, Creativity Magazine labeled them as one of their top ten best commercial directors.
Aside from their work in music videos and commercials, Jonathan and Valerie have done extensive work in television and film, including directing episodes of "Mr. Show with Bob and David" for HBO and producing two feature films, "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years" for New Line Cinema, and "Gift" for Warner Bros. Music.Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Ruby Sparks (2012)- Animation Department
- Writer
- Art Department
Brenda Chapman is an American animator, animation film director and writer from Beason, Illinois. She directed the Pixar film Brave and the DreamWorks Animation film The Prince of Egypt. She wrote the storylines of The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She is married to Kevin Lima, fellow animation director. She did the singing voice of Miriam during the River Lullaby reprise of The Prince of Egypt.The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Brave (2012)- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Sarah Smith is known for Ron's Gone Wrong (2021), Arthur Christmas (2011) and The Armando Iannucci Shows (2001).Arthur Christmas (2011)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1932, her mother took Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her mother wanted. The picture was Her First Affaire (1932). Ida, a bleached blonde, went to Hollywood in 1934 playing small, insignificant parts. Peter Ibbetson (1935) was one of her few noteworthy movies and it was not until The Light That Failed (1939) that she got a chance to get better parts. In most of her movies, she was cast as the hard, but sympathetic woman from the wrong side of the tracks. In The Sea Wolf (1941) and High Sierra (1940), she played the part magnificently. It has been said that no one could do hard-luck dames the way Lupino could do them. She played tough, knowing characters who held their own against some of the biggest leading men of the day - Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Colman, John Garfield and Edward G. Robinson. She made a handful of films during the forties playing different characters ranging from Pillow to Post (1945), where she played a traveling saleswoman to the tough nightclub singer in The Man I Love (1946). But good roles for women were hard to get and there were many young actresses and established stars competing for those roles. She left Warner Brothers in 1947 and became a freelance actress. When better roles did not materialize, Ida stepped behind the camera as a director, writer and producer. Her first directing job came when director Elmer Clifton fell ill on a script that she co-wrote Not Wanted (1949). Ida had joked that as an actress, she was the poor man's Bette Davis. Now, she said that as a director, she became the poor man's Don Siegel. The films that she wrote, or directed, or appeared in during the fifties were mostly inexpensive melodramas. She later turned to television where she directed episodes in shows such as The Untouchables (1959) and The Fugitive (1963). In the seventies, she made guest appearances on various television show and appeared in small parts in a few movies.Outrage (1950)
The Bigamist (1953)
The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
The Twilight Zone-The Masks (1964)
The Trouble with Angels (1966)- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Amy Heckerling studied Film and TV at New York University and got a Masters Degree in Film from The American Film Institute. Despite this education she couldn't get a break in Hollywood. However, in 1982, she made Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and people started to take notice. In 1985, while Amy was pregnant, she got the idea for Look Who's Talking (1989). In 1994, Amy wrote Clueless (1995). Amy is a liberal and also an environmentalist and helps environmental charities whenever she can.Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Johnny Dangerously (1984)
National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)
Look Who's Talking (1989)
Look Who's Talking Too (1990)
Clueless (1995)
The Carrie Diaries-Hush Hush (2010)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Martha Patterson Coolidge was born on August 17, 1946 in New Haven Connecticut. She studied illustration at Rhode Island School of Design, but changed majors, becoming the first film major at the school. She attended and graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she received her Master's degree in Fine Arts. Coolidge's diverse project range has given her a reputation for eclectic taste. Among a long list of working with Hollywood's finest, Coolidge also discovered great talents like Nicolas Cage (Valley Girl (1983)), Val Kilmer (Real Genius (1985)) and James Gandolfini (Angie (1994)).
In addition to working with talented artists, Coolidge has received many awards for her work. Recognition has included a Best Director "Spirit" Award from the Independent Feature Project West, the "Crystal Award" from Women in Film, the Maverick Award from the LeFemme Film Festival, the distinguished "Robert Aldrich Award" from the Directors Guild of America, the "Breakthrough Award" from Women, Men & Media, and "Lifetime Achievement Awards" from Methodfest, the Dallas Film Festival, a "Big Bear" from the Big Bear Film Festival and the "Award for Artist Excellence in Film" from Rhode Island School of Design. She has been inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame and the Museum of Television and Radio, and also helped found the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Inc. and the IFP.
An avid horsewoman. Ms. Coolidge breeds and shows Paso Fino horses and holds several National Championship titles. She is married to the award-winning production designer James H. Spencer and has one son, Preston, named in honor of one of her idols, playwright and film director Preston Sturges.Valley Girl (1983)
Real Genius (1985)
Rambling Rose (1991)
Crazy in Love (1992) (TV)
Lost in Yonkers (1993)
Angie (1994)
Three Wishes (1995)
Out to Sea (1997)
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) (TV)
The Prince & Me (2004)
Material Girls (2006)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Susan Seidelman was born on 11 December 1952 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She is a director and producer, known for Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Sex and the City (1998) and Smithereens (1982).Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
She-Devil (1989)- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Penny Marshall was born Carole Penny Marshall on October 15, 1943 in Manhattan. The Libra was 5' 6 1/2", with brown hair and green eyes. She was the daughter of Marjorie (Ward), a tap dance teacher, and Anthony "Tony" Marshall, an industrial film director. She was the younger sister of filmmakers Garry Marshall and Ronny Hallin. Her father was of Italian descent, originally surnamed "Masciarelli," and her mother was of German, Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry.
Penny was known in her family as "the bad one"... because not only did she walk on the ledge of her family's apartment building, but she snuck into the movies as a child and even dated a guy named "Lefty." She attended a private girls' high school in New York and then went to the University of New Mexico for two and a half years. There, Penny got pregnant with daughter, Tracy Reiner, and soon after married the father, Michael Henry, in 1961. The couple divorced two years later in 1963. She worked as a secretary for awhile. Her film debut came from her brother Garry Marshall, who put her in the movie How Sweet It Is! (1968) with the talented Debbie Reynolds and James Garner. She also did a dandruff commercial with Farrah Fawcett - the casting people, of course, giving Farrah the part of the "beautiful girl" and Penny the part of the "plain girl." This only added to Penny's insecurity with her looks.
She then married Rob Reiner on April 10, 1971, shortly after getting her big television break as Oscar Madison's secretary, Myrna Turner, on The Odd Couple (1970). She also played Mary Richards' neighbor, Paula Kovacks, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) for a couple of episodes. However, her Laverne & Shirley (1976) fame came when her brother needed two women to play "fast girls" who were friends of Arthur Fonzarelli and would date Fonzie and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days (1974). Penny had been working on miscellaneous writing projects ("My Country Tis Of Thee", a bicentennial spoof for Francis Ford Coppola and "Paper Hands" about the Salem Witch Trials) with writing partner Cindy Williams. Cindy happened to be a friend and ex-girlfriend of Henry Winkler's, so Garry asked the two to play the parts of these girls. The audience saw their wonderful chemistry, and loved them so much, a spin-off was created for them.
Penny was well-known as Laverne DeFazio. She and Rob had divorced in 1980. The show ended three years later, half a year after Cindy Williams left the show due to pregnancy (her first baby, Emily, from now ex-husband Bill Hudson)... they wanted Williams to work the week she was supposed to deliver.
Soon after, Penny began directing such films as Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), Big (1988) and A League of Their Own (1992). Her hobbies included needlepoint, jigsaw puzzles and antique shopping. She was best friends with actress Carrie Fisher and was godmother to Carrie's daughter, Billie.
Penny died at 75 in Los Angeles, California.Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)
Big (1988)
Awakenings (1990)
A League of Their Own (1992)
The Preacher's Wife (1996)- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Mary Lambert was born in 1951 in Helena, Arkansas, USA. She is a director and writer, known for Pet Sematary (1989), Madonna: Like a Prayer (1989) and The in Crowd (2000). She has been married to Jerome Gary since 28 September 1991. They have one child.Madonna Music Video: Borderline (1984), Like a Virgin (1984), Material Girl (1985), La Isla Bonita (1987), Like a Prayer (1989)
Pet Sematary (1989)
Tales from the Crypt-Collection Completed (1989)
Pet Sematary II (1992)
Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge (2001) (TV)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Jennifer Lynch was born on 7 April 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She is a director and writer, known for Chained (2012), Boxing Helena (1993) and Surveillance (2008).Boxing Helena (1993)
Teen Wolf (2011) (TV Series)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Caroline Thompson was born on 23 April 1956 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Addams Family (1991) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). She is married to Steve Nicolaides. She was previously married to Henry Bromell.Black Beauty (1994)
Buddy (1997)
Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Gillian Armstrong was born on 18 December 1950 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She is a director and producer, known for My Brilliant Career (1979), Not Fourteen Again (1996) and Little Women (1994). She is married to John Pleffer. They have two children.My Brilliant Career (1979)
Mrs. Soffel (1984)
Little Women (1994)
Oscar and Lucinda (1997)
Charlotte Gray (2001)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Having graduated from FAMU in Prague film (1971), Agnieszka Holland returned to Poland and began her film career working with Krzysztof Zanussi as assistant director, and Andrzej Wajda as her mentor. Her first feature film was PROVINCIAL ACTORS (1978), one of the flagship pictures of the "cinema of moral disquiet" and the winner of the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1980. Subsequently, she made the films FEVER (1980) and THE LONELY WOMAN (1981). In 1981, just before the declaration of the state of emergency in Poland, Agnieszka Holland emigrated to France.
She directed ANGRY HARVEST (1985) which was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar. Her film EUROPA EUROPA (1990) also received a U.S. Academy Award nomination (best screenplay) and IN DARKNESS (2011) was again nominated as best foreign-language film. She also collaborated with her friend Krzysztof Kieslowski on the screenplay of his trilogy, THREE COLOURS (1993).
Holland's other films include TO KILL A PRIEST (1988), OLIVIER, OLIVIER (1992), THE SECRET GARDEN (1993), TOTAL ECLIPSE (1995), WASHINGTON SQUARE (1997), THE THIRD MIRACLE (1999), SHOT IN THE HEART (2001), JULIE WALKING HOME (2001), COPYING BEETHOVEN (2006), IN DARKNESS (2011), BURNING BUSH (2013), SPOOR (2017), MR. JONES (2019) and CHARLATAN (2020). She also directed several episodes of many notable TV series, including THE WIRE, JAG, COLD CASE, TREME (for the pilot of the latter she was nominated for an Emmy) and HOUSE OF CARDS. Agnieszka Holland has also written or co-written screenplays for films made by other directors and directed plays for Polish television. She was elected chairwoman of the Board of the European Film Academy in 2014 and was elected as its President in 2021.The Secret Garden (1993)
Three Colors: Blue (1993)
Total Eclipse (1995)
Rosemary's Baby (2014) (mini-series)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Nora Ephron was educated at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. She was an acclaimed essayist (Crazy Salad 1975), novelist (Heartburn 1983), and had written screenplays for several popular films, all featuring strong female characters, such as anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood (Silkwood (1983), co-written with Alice Arlen) and a mobster's feisty independent daughter Cookie Voltecki (Cookie (1989), also co-written with Arlen). Ephron's hard-headed sensibilities helped make Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally... (1989) a clear-eyed view of modern romance, and she earned an Oscar nomination for her original screenplay.
Ephron made her directorial debut with the comedy This Is My Life (1992), co-scripted by her sister Delia Ephron, which starred Julie Kavner as a single mother who struggles to establish herself as a stand-up comedienne. Ephron followed up by helming and co-writing Sleepless in Seattle (1993), a romantic comedy in which lovers Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are separated for most of the film. Less about love than about love in the movies, the film drew inspiration from the beloved shipboard romance An Affair to Remember (1957), starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.
Ephron was born in New York City, the daughter of stage and screen writing team Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron, who used her infancy as the subject of their play "Three's a Family" and based their comedy Take Her, She's Mine (1963) on letters their daughter wrote them from college. Their screenplays include There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Carousel (1956) and Desk Set (1957). Formerly married to novelist Dan Greenburg and investigative journalist Carl Bernstein, Ephron was wed to crime journalist and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, at the time of her passing, who wrote such films as Goodfellas (1990). She was of Russian Jewish descent.This Is My Life (1992)
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Mixed Nuts (1994)
Michael (1996)
You've Got Mail (1998)
Lucky Numbers (2000)
Bewitched (2005)
Julie & Julia (2009)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Kimberly Peirce was born on 8 September 1967 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA. She is a director and producer, known for Boys Don't Cry (1999), Stop-Loss (2008) and Carrie (2013).Boys Don't Cry (1999)
Carrie (2013)- Writer
- Production Designer
- Director
Vicky Jenson's career spans more than two decades in both animation and live action, and crosses the spectrum from TV to feature films to shorts including a commercial campaign for Old Navy of more than 40 spots with Anonymous Content and was at that time the only female feature film director they represented.
Vicky Jenson started in animation as a cell painter. She learned to paint backgrounds on The Flintstones (1960) and The Smurfs (1981) at Hanna Barbera Studios where she worked summers to cover fall semesters at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.
After transferring to Cal State University at Northridge to study literature and fine art, Vicky designed backgrounds and drew storyboards for Filmation, Marvel, Disney TV and Warner Bros on such classics as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), Taz-Mania (1991), _Batman_ and Jem (1985).
Her credits include TV classics the The Smurfs (1981) for Hanna Barbera, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), _, _Batman_ and Jem (1985) and developing visual styles for Ralph Bakshi and John Kricfalusi on the groundbreaking Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (1987) and The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991).
After directing on both the Oscar-winning winning Shrek (2001) and the Academy Award Nominated Shark Tale (2004), Vicky directed her first live-action feature Post Grad for Ivan Reitman's Montecito Pictures and Fox Searchlight. Her other feature film credits include art directing on Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, production design on The Road to El Dorado (2000), story artist on Chicken Run. She also directed a live-action short, Family Tree (2003), which premiered at Sundance, screened at countless festivals, including SXSW, Aspen and Malibu and went on to win multiple festival awards.
For her decades of outstanding work, Vicky has earned countless awards, including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and recognition from the Annies, BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Cannes, the Golden Globes, among other awards.
She is currently directing her third animated feature for DreamWorks and is scripting of a live-action fairytale feature to follow.
When she's not working in the studio, Jenson enjoys ultralight backpacking, learning to play mandolin and teaching her border collie pointless new tricks.Shrek (2001)
Shark Tale (2004)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Gurinder Chadha was born in Kenya, and grew up in Southall, London, England. She began her career as a news reporter with BBC Radio, directed several award winning documentaries for the BBC, and began an alliance with the British Film Institute (BFI) and Channel Four. In 2001, Chadha set up her own production company: Bend It Films.Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Bride and Prejudice (2005)
Paris, je t'aime (2007)
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)
Viceroy's House (2017)- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Raised in Texas and Kentucky by her doctor father and mother. Went to Purdue University to study landscape architecture but switched to drama. Moved to Nashville after college to be with her family before heading to Los Angeles in 1982 to study at the Strasburg Institute. Worked for a commercials production company as a receptionist before taking a position with them as a music video production assistant. While working at the office, she began work on what would eventually become Thelma & Louise (1991), writing the script in longhand at home and then retyping it on the job.Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
Mad Money (2008)
Nashville (TV Series)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Patty Jenkins is a writer/director best known for directing Wonder Woman, the Warner Bros./DC Comics blockbuster of 2017, and her debut feature Monster. Patty also works in television where she is best known for the pilot and finale episode of AMC's hit show The Killing.
Patty began her career as a painter at The Cooper Union in New York City. Upon transitioning to filmmaking, she spent eight years as an Assistant Camera Person/Focus Puller on commercials and music videos. After attending the AFI in Los Angeles, she wrote and directed Monster.
Roger Ebert named Monster as The #1 Best Film of 2004 and #3 Best Film of the decade. AFI named it on the Ten Best Films of the Year. Patty also garnered a number of awards and nominations, including winning Best First Feature at the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards. Charlize Theron went on to sweep the awards circuit winning the Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG Award, and numerous critics' awards in the Best Actress category.
Jenkins went on to direct many commercials and TV programs including Fox's Arrested Development and HBO's Entourage and the pilot episodes for ABC's Betrayal and Exposed. She won the DGA award for best directing for The Killing pilot, as well as being nominated for an Emmy. She also received an Emmy nomination for her work on the final segment of FIVE - a series of short films about breast cancer.
In 2017, Jenkins broke the record for Biggest Grossing Live-Action Film Directed by a Woman, Domestic and Worldwide, with Wonder Woman. The film also received critical acclaim, broke several records and went on to become highest grossing film of the summer of 2017.Monster (2003)
Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)- Director
- Actress
- Writer
Sofia Coppola was born on May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA as Sofia Carmina Coppola. She is a director, known for Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). She has been married to Thomas Mars since August 27, 2011. They have two daughters, Romy and Cosima. She was previously married to Spike Jonze.The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Somewhere (2010)
The Bling Ring (2013)
The Beguiled (2017)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Niki Caro is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter, born in 1967. Caro was born in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. She was educated first at the Kadimah College in Auckland, and then the Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland. The School is a private girls' school, and ranks among the top-achieving schools in New Zealand.
In the late 1980s, Caro enrolled in the Elam School of Fine Arts to pursue training as a sculptor. However her interest shifted to film studies. She graduated from Elam in 1988, at the age of 21. For post-graduate studies, Caro enrolled at the Swinburne University of Technology, located at Melbourne, Victoria.
Following the completion of her studies, Caro initially directed television commercials. In 1992, she directed and wrote an episode for the anthology television series "Another Country" (1992). In 1998, Caro directed her first feature film "Memory and Desire". It was an adaptation of a short story by Peter Wells (1950-2019), concerning the depression and apparent suicide of a Japanese married man. The film was critically well-received and won a New Zealand film award.
Caro next directed the feature film "Whale Rider" (2002).. It depicts a young Maori girl, Paikea "Pai" Apirana (played by Keisha Castle-Hughes) , who stands as a candidate for the position of tribal chief. The film earned over 41 million dollars at the worldwide box office, becoming one of New Zealand's most commercially successful films. The film also won an award at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2005, Caro directed her first American film, "North Country". The film was loosely based on the legal case "Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co.", a class-action sexual harassment lawsuit concerning the treatment of female miners in a Minnesota-based mine. The film earned about 25 million dollars at the worldwide box office, failing to recover its budget expenses. Two of the films actresses (Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand) were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances, but neither of them won.
In 2009, Caro directed the romantic drama "A Heavenly Vintage", an adaptation on the fantasy novel "The Vintner's Luck" (1998) by Elizabeth Knox. The film won three awards at the Sedona Film Festival, but was criticized for toning down the homosexual relationship depicted in the novel.
In 2015, Caro directed the sports drama "McFarland, USA". The film is based on the life of track and field coach James White (1941-), and the first victory of the McFarland High School at a cross-country running championship in 1987. The film won about 46 million dollars at the worldwide box office, the commercially most successful film in Caro's career to that point.
In 2017, Caro directed the World War II-themed war film "The Zookeeper's Wife". The film was based on the lives of a married couple, the zoologist Jan Zabinski (1897-1974) and the children's writer Antonina Erdman ( 1908-1971). During the foreign occupation of Poland in World War II, the Zabinskis used the abandoned buildings of the Warsaw Zoo and their privately-owned villa to shelter hundreds of displaced Jews. They managed to rescue about 300 people. Caro won an award at the Heartland Film Festival for her direction in this film.
In 2017, Caro was hired by the Walt Disney Company to direct a live-action remake of "Mulan" (1998). Caro was reportedly the second female film director entrusted by Disney to direct a big-budget film, following Ava DuVernay (1972-). Caro's remake is scheduled for release in 2020.Whale Rider (2003)
North Country (2005)
McFarland, USA (2015)
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
Mulan (2020)- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Elizabeth (Liz) Allen Rosenbaum is an Emmy Award-winning and DGA Award-nominated director and producer. She is known for "Purple Hearts" starring Sofia Carson, which became the biggest movie opening for Netflix in 2022, Emmy award-winning original musical ""Sneakerella for Disney Plus, and "Ramona and Beezus" for 20th Century Fox, starring Selena Gomez, Joey King and Sandra Oh.
At the helm of over 50 hours of content for major networks and studios, Liz has directed hit shows such as "Dead to Me," "Empire," Gossip Girl," "Why Women Kill," "The Exorcist," "All American," "The Resident," and "Vampire Diaries." She has directed and produced six television pilots including BH90210 (CBS/Fox), Spinning Out (Netflix), Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists (Warner Horizon/ Freeform), The Kicks (Amazon), Relationship Status (Go-90), and Dating Rules From My Future Self (Hulu), all of which have been picked up to series. Liz also directed five wide-release movies including "Aquamarine," "Ramona and Beezus," and "Purple Hearts."
She has garnered a number of nominations and awards over the years. In 2017 Liz received a DGA Award nomination for "Outstanding Direction" for her work on the pilot for Amazon's "The Kicks." Her show, "Relationship Status" starring Milo Ventimiglia was an official selection for the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for two daytime Emmys. Her series BH90210 for CBS/Fox was the highest debut of the summer of 2019 and was an honorable mention in The New Yorker for best show of the year. The "Purple Hearts" original soundtrack overseen by Liz was the top soundtrack worldwide upon its release, and the single "Come Back Home" went gold. "Purple Hearts" also holds the number 7 spot on Netflix's top ten most viewed movies of all time. And she won an Emmy for "Sneakerella" for Best Fiction Special. She has also directed over a dozen successful music videos and was shortlisted for a Clio Award for a spec Coca-Cola commercial.
Liz began her career by directing a 25-minute USC film, "Eyeball Eddie" starring Martin Starr, M. Emmett Walsh and Michael Rosenbaum which led her to her first feature film assignment at 20th Century Fox. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University and did her graduate work at USC where she was awarded the Jack Nicholson Award for the "strongest directing" candidate.
Liz is a board member for "Cornell in Hollywood" and a professor at USC's film school. She resides in Los Angeles with her writer/producer husband, Scott, their son, Theo and her two dogs, Tony and Cookie Rosenbaum. @thisislizallenAquamarine (2006)
Ramona and Beezus (2010)- Actress
- Writer
- Director
The late Adrienne Shelly was born in Queens, New York, to Elaine Langbaum and Sheldon Levine. After graduating Jericho High School in Jericho, New York, she enrolled at Boston University and majored in film production. She dropped out after her junior year and moved to Manhattan, where she made a name for herself in independent films with her work in The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990). She eventually moved behind the camera, writing and directing I'll Take You There (1999) and Waitress (2007) (her final film).
On November 1, 2006, Adrienne Shelly was murdered. She was survived by her husband Andy Ostroy and their daughter Sophie.Waitress (2007)- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Kelly Reichardt was born and raised in Miami-Dade Country, Florida, to a family of police officers. She had an interest in photography from a very young age. She started by using her father's camera, which he used for photographing crime scenes. She went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. In the summer of 2005, Reichardt directed Old Joy (2006), which premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It was the first American film to win the Tiger award at the Rotterdam Film Festival and opened at the Film Forum in New York City. Reichardt's first feature, River of Grass (1994), a sun-drenched noir that was shot in her home town of Dade County, was cited as one of the best films of 1995 by the Boston Globe, Village Voice, Film Comment, the New York Daily News, Paper Magazine, and the San Francisco Guardian.Wendy and Lucy (2008)- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Jane Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and now lives in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Having graduated with a BA in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1975, and a BA, with a painting major, at Sydney College of the Arts in 1979, she began filmmaking in the early 1980s, attending the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). Her first short film, Peel (1982) won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986. Her other short films include A Girl's Own Story (1984), Passionless Moments (1983), After Hours (1985) and the tele-feature 2 Friends (1986), all of which won Australian and international awards. She co-wrote and directed her first feature film, Sweetie (1989), which won the Georges Sadoul prize in 1989 for Best Foreign Film, as well as the LA Film Critics' New Generation Award in 1990, the American Independant Spirit Award for Best Foreign Feature, and the Australian Critics' Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress. She followed this with An Angel at My Table (1990), a dramatization based on the autobiographies of Janet Frame which won some seven prizes, including the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1990. It was also awarded prizes at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals, again winning the American Independent Spirit Award, and was voted the most popular film at the 1990 Sydney Film Festival. The Piano (1993) won the Palme D'Or at Cannes, making her the first woman ever to win the prestigious award. She also captured an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 1993 Oscars, while also being nominated for Best Director.The Piano (1993)
Bright Star (2009)- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Jodie Foster started her career at the age of two. For four years she made commercials and finally gave her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). In 1975 Jodie was offered the role of prostitute Iris Steensma in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received an Academy Award nomination in the "Best Supporting Actress" category, marked a breakthrough in her career. In 1980 she graduated as the best of her class from the College Lycée Français and began to study English Literature at Yale University, from where she graduated magna cum laude in 1985. One tragic moment in her life was March 30th, 1981 when John Warnock Hinkley Jr. attempted to assassinate the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Hinkley was obsessed with Jodie and the movie Taxi Driver (1976), in which Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, tried to shoot presidential candidate Palantine. Despite the fact that Jodie never took acting lessons, she received two Oscars before she was thirty years of age. She received her first award for her part as Sarah Tobias in The Accused (1988) and the second one for her performance as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).Little Man Tate (1991)
Home for the Holidays (1995)
The Beaver (2011)
Money Monster (2016)
Black Mirror (TV Series) (one episode)- Music Artist
- Actress
- Producer
Barbra Streisand is an American singer, actress, director and producer and one of the most successful personalities in show business. She is the only person ever to receive all of the following: Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, National Endowment for the Arts, and Peabody awards, as well as the Kennedy Center Honor, American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement honor and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Chaplin Award.
She was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942 to Diana Kind (née Ida Rosen), a singer turned school secretary, and Emanuel Streisand, a high school teacher. Her father died when she was 15 months old. She has a brother, Sheldon, and a half-sister, Roslyn Kind, from their mother's remarriage. As a child she attended the Beis Yakov Jewish School in Brooklyn. She was raised in a middle-class family and grew up dreaming of becoming an actress (or even an actress / conductor, as she happily described her teenage years at one of her concerts).
After a period as a nightclub singer and off-Broadway performer in New York City she began to attract interest and a fan base, thanks to her original and powerful vocal talent. She debuted on Broadway in the 1962 musical comedy "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" by Harold Rome, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a New York Drama Critics Poll award. The following year she reached great commercial success with her first Columbia Records solo releases, "The Barbra Streisand Album" (multiple Grammy winner, including "Best Album of the Year") and "The Second Barbra Streisand Album" (her first RIAA Gold Album); these albums, mostly devoted to composer Harold Arlen, brought her critical praise and, most of all, public acclaim all over the US. In 1964 she had another smash Broadway hit when she portrayed legendary Broadway star Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill; the show's main song, "People", became her first hit single and she appeared on the cover of Time magazine. After many TV appearances as a guest on various music and variety shows (such as an episode of The Judy Garland Show (1963), for which she was nominated for an Emmy), she signed an exclusive contract with CBS for a series of annual TV specials. My Name Is Barbra (1965) (which won an Emmy) and Color Me Barbra (1966) were extremely successful.
After a brief London stage period and the birth of her son Jason Gould (with then-husband Elliott Gould), in summer 1967 she gave a memorable free concert in New York City, "A Happening in Central Park", that was filmed and later broadcast (in an edited version) as a TV special; then she flew to Hollywood for her first movie, Funny Girl (1968), a filming of her stage success. The picture, directed by William Wyler, opened in 1968 and became a hit in the US and abroad, making her an international "superstar" and multiple award winner, including the Best Actress Oscar. After a series of screen musicals, such as Gene Kelly's Hello, Dolly! (1969) and Vincente Minnelli's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), she wanted to try comedies, resulting in such films as The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) and What's Up, Doc? (1972). She turned to dramas and turned out Up the Sandbox (1972) and the classic The Way We Were (1973), directed by Sydney Pollack and co-starring Robert Redford. The song "The Way We Were" (written by Marvin Hamlisch and Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) became one of her biggest hits and most memorable and famous songs.
She returned to TV for a new special conceived as a musical journey covering many world musical styles, Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments (1973), then returned (for contractual reasons) to her Fanny Brice role in a sequel to her hit "Funny Girl" film, Funny Lady (1975), and the next year turned out one of her most personal film projects, A Star Is Born (1976), one of the biggest hits of the year for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress and her second Oscar, for the song "Evergreen". Always extremely busy on the discography side, averaging one album a year throughout the '70s and '80s, she had a string of successful singles and albums, such as "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (duet with Neil Diamond), "Enough is Enough" (with Donna Summer), "The Main Event" (from her film The Main Event (1979) with her friend Ryan O'Neal) and the album "Guilty", written for her by The Bee Gees' Barry Gibb, which sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.
She debuted as a director with the musical drama Yentl (1983), in which she also portrayed a Jewish girl who is forced to pass herself off as a man to pursue her dreams. The movie received generally positive reviews and the beautiful score by Michel Legrand and lyricists Marilyn Bergman and Alan Bergman stands up as one of Streisand's finest musical works. The film received several Oscar nominations, winning in two categories, but she was not nominated as Best Director, which disappointed both her and her fans, many of whom consider this the Academy's biggest "snub".
In 1985 her album "The Broadway Album" was an unexpected runaway success, winning a Grammy Award and helping to introduce a new generation to the world of American musical theater. In 1986 she performed in a memorable concert, after 19 years of stage silence, "One Voice". She returned to the screen in Nuts (1987), a drama directed by Martin Ritt, in the role of a prostitute accused of murder who fights to avoid being labeled "insane" at her trial. In 1991 she appeared in The Prince of Tides (1991), which many consider to be the pinnacle of her screen career, playing a psychiatrist who tries to help a man (Nick Nolte) to find the pieces of his past life. The film received seven Oscar nominations (but again NOT for Best Directing), but she did receive a nomination from the DGA (Directors Guild of America) for Best Director. In 1994 she returned to the stage after 27 years for a series of sold-out concerts (for the televised version of one of these, she won another Emmy).
In the 1990s she broke several personal records: with two #1 albums ("Back to Broadway" in 1993 and "Higher Ground" in 1997) and became the only artist to achieve a #1 album on the Billboard charts in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (she extended this record into the 21st century in 2009 with the jazz album "Love is the Answer"). In 1996 she starred in her third picture as director, The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), with Jeff Bridges and Lauren Bacall. The film had a "the girl got the guy" ending, and the same happened to her in real life--the next year she married well known TV actor James Brolin.
In 2000 she focused her career again on concerts ("Timeless") and in 2006-07 with a European tour. She made only two more films--a supporting role as a sex therapist mother in the Ben Stiller comedy Meet the Fockers (2004) and its sequel, Little Fockers (2010), alongside Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. She published a book, "Passion for Design", in 2010 and celebrated her friendship with the Bergmans with an entire album of their songs, "What Matters Most" (2011), that debuted in the top 10.
After a long break from filming, she returned in a starring role for the 2012 holiday season with The Guilt Trip (2012), a mother/son picture co-starring Seth Rogen and directed by Anne Fletcher, and is working on putting together a film version of the well-known Jule Styne musical "Gypsy". In almost 50 years of career, Streisand has contributed to the show business industry in a personal and unique way, collecting a multi-generational fan base; she has a powerful and recognize vocal range, and a raucous and often self-deprecating sense of humor, which doesn't prevent her from showing the serious and dramatic sides of her personality. Her strong political belief in social justice infuses her professional career and personal life, and she makes no bones about what she believes; her willingness to put her money where her mouth is has resulted in some truly vicious attacks by many who hold opposite political views, but that hasn't stopped her from acting on her beliefs. She has been honored with the Humanitarian Award from the Human Rights Campaign, an Honorary Doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Brandeis University in 1995, an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2013 and the bestowing by the government of France the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. She supports many humanitarian causes through the Streisand Foundation and has been a dedicated environmentalist for many years; she endowed a chair in environmental studies in 1987 and donated her 24-acre estate to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. In addition, she was the lead founder for the Clinton Climate Change Initiative. This effort brought together a consortium of major cities around the world to drive down greenhouse gas emissions. She is a leading spokesperson and fund-raiser for social and political causes close to her heart and has often dedicated proceeds from her live concert performances to benefit programs she supports.Yentl (1983)
The Prince of Tides (1991)
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
She came to prominence with the much lauded adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's autobiographical novel 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'. Since then she's directed feature films, television dramas and documentaries. In 2008, she founded the charity called Filmclub with Lindsay Mackie. It has since grown to be one of the largest and most influential after-school clubs in the UK, attracting over 150,000 children and young people each week.
Filmclub screens 100 years of film from all over the world to its members. Inspirational, entertaining and with positive outcomes on literacy, social behaviour and cultural awareness, Filmclub members have the opportunity to review, discuss and meet professional film-makers.
In 2006, she was asked to build a web-site for the Guardian newspaper to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Greenham camp.Used People (1992)
To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Jule Newmar (1995)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Betty Thomas was born July 27, 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri, graduating from Ohio University with a BA in fine arts. Initially sidetracked, Betty first taught school in Chicago but found herself restricted and needing more of an open forum for self-expression than a classroom. She found herself drawn inextricably to comedy. After toiling as a waitress, she became part of the Second City improvisational troupe where she made use of her towering (6' 1") imposing features in aggressive routines and sketches. True to form, she made her film debut in the sketch satire Tunnel Vision (1976) which parodied TV programming. The movie is lesser known today for its satirical bite and more for its exceptional cast of up-and-coming comedy artists at the time including Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Gerrit Graham, Howard Hesseman, and the team of Al Franken and Tom Davis. Other innocuous comedies/spoofs followed such as Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy (1976), Used Cars (1980), and Coming Attractions (1978) which, at the very least, helped to bulk up her comedy resume. She also appeared as a regular on The Fun Factory (1976), which was three parts quiz show, silly sketches, and audience participation.
Ironically, Betty achieved her stardom not in comedy but in hard-hitting drama. Doing a complete about face as tough-talking Officer Lucille Bates on the hit police series Hill Street Blues (1981), she displayed both grit and vulnerability as she stood nose-to-nose alongside the rest of the male-oriented precinct. She was nominated for six Emmys in all and won the "Best Supporting Actress" trophy in 1985. Some equally compelling mini-movie roles came along with this success. In the late 1980s, Betty made an abrupt and concentrated move into TV and film directing, one of her last acting roles being that of the butch, underhanded scoutmaster (and Shelley Long's misery-inducing nemesis) in the obvious comedy film Troop Beverly Hills (1989).
Betty received her bookend Emmy award while directing the cable sitcom Dream On (1990). She never lost her taste for comedy satire, however. One of her major box office successes would come with the spot-on parody The Brady Bunch Movie (1995). She has continued in this lighter vein of late, guiding the one-man promotion machine Howard Stern to a surprisingly entertaining critical hit with Private Parts (1997), which was based on his memoirs, the Jennifer Love Hewitt film Can't Hardly Wait (1998), I Spy (2002), an updated remake of the 1960s TV series, and Surviving Christmas (2004). In recent years she has directed TV movies and episodes of such series as "Audrey" and "Grace and Frankie."The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)
Doctor Dolittle (1998)
John Tucker Must Die (2006)
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squenkquel (2009)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Nancy Jane Meyers is an American filmmaker. She has written, produced, and directed many critically and commercially successful films including Private Benjamin (1980), Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), The Parent Trap (1998), What Women Want (2000), Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006), It's Complicated (2009), and The Intern (2015).The Parent Trap (1998)
What Women Want (2000)
Something's Gotta Give (2003)
The Intern (2015)- Director
- Producer
- Actress
A very talented painter, Kathryn spent two years at the San Francisco Art Institute. At 20, she won a scholarship to the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program. She was given a studio in a former Offtrack Betting building, literally in an old bank vault, where she made art and waited to be critiqued by people like Richard Serra, Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Sontag. Later she earned a scholarship to study film at Columbia University School of Arts, graduating in 1979. She was also a member of the British avant garde cultural group, Art and Language. Kathryn is the only child of the manager of a paint factory and a librarian.Near Dark (1987)
Point Break (1991)
Wild Palms (1993) (mini)
Strange Days (1995)
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
The Hurt Locker (2008)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Sarah Polley is an actress and director renowned in her native Canada for her political activism. Blessed with an extremely expressive face that enables directors to minimize dialog due to her uncanny ability to suggest a character's thoughts, Polley has become a favorite of critics for her sensitive portraits of wounded and conflicted young women in independent films.
She was born into a show business family: her stepfather, Michael Polley, appeared with her in the movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) and on the television series Avonlea (1990); and her mother, Diane Polley, was an actress and casting director. It was her mother's connections that launched Sarah, at her own insistence, on an acting career at the age of four, following in the footsteps of her older half-brother Mark Polley. A second half-brother, John Buchan, is a casting director and producer.
Her career as a child actress shifted into high gear when she was cast as the Cockney waif Jody Turner in Lantern Hill (1989), for which she won a Gemini Award, the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy, in 1992. Produced by Kevin Sullivan, the film was based on the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables (1985). When Sullivan created a television series based on Montgomery's work, he cast Polley in the lead role of Sara Stanley in Avonlea (1990). The series propelled Polley into the first rank of Canadian TV stars and made her independently wealthy by the age of fourteen.
Her personal life was deeply affected by the death of her mother Diane from cancer shortly after her 11th birthday, a development that ironically paralleled the fictional life of her character Sara. Highly intelligent and politically progressive at a young age, Polley eventually rebelled against what she felt was the Americanization of the series after it was picked up by the Disney Channel for distribution in the US, eventually dropping out of the show. Though she does not blame her parents, she remains publicly disenchanted over the loss of her childhood and, in October 2003, said she is working on a script about a twelve-year-old girl on a TV show.
Polley, who picked up a second Gemini Award for her performance in the TV series Straight Up (1996), subsequently quit acting and high school to turn her attention to politics, positioning herself on the extreme left of Canada's left-of-center New Democratic Party. The publicity ensuing from her losing some teeth after being slugged by an Ontario policeman during a protest against the Conservative provincial government, plus the stinging cynicism from some other activists unimpressed by her celebrity, led her to lower her political profile temporarily and return to acting in Atom Egoyan's film The Sweet Hereafter (1997). It was her appearance as Nicole, the teenage girl injured in a school bus accident who serves as the conscience of the small town rent by the tragedy, that first brought her to the attention of critics in the US. In Canada, the role was heralded by critics as her successful breakthrough to adult roles. It was her second film with Egoyan, who wrote the part with her in mind when he adapted the novel by Russell Banks, who, ironically, is American. Predictions of an Academy Award nomination and future stardom were part of the critical consensus, and she received her first Best Actress Genie nomination from Canada's Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and the Best Supporting Actress award from the Boston Society of Film Critics. It was the buzz created at the Sundance Festival, where her starring role in the film Guinevere (1999) was showcased, when the entertainment media crowned her the it-girl of 1999.
Intensely private and extremely ambivalent about the personal cost of celebrity and the Hollywood ethos Fame is the Name of the Game, Polley could be seen as rebelling against the expectations of mainstream cinema when she embarked on a career path that took her out of the spotlight thrown by the harsh lights of the Hollywood hype/publicity machine after shooting the film Go (1999). She dropped out of Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000), the US$60 million mega-hyped vehicle that was supposed to make her a mainstream star in the US, choosing to return to Canada to make the CDN$1.5 million The Law of Enclosures (2000) for Genie Award-winner John Greyson, a director she admires greatly. The film grossed poorly in Canada and was not released in the US, but it did garner Polley her second Genie nomination for Best Actress. While her replacement in Almost Famous (2000) went on to win an Oscar nomination and a career above the title in glossy Hollywood films, she took a wide variety of parts, large and small, in independent films, including significant roles in the ensemble pieces The Claim (2000) and The Weight of Water (2000); bit parts in eXistenZ (1999) and Love Come Down (2000); and the lead in No Such Thing (2001). Her choice of projects showed her to be a questing spirit more focused on learning the art of her craft than on stardom.
She has said that her choice of film roles, eschewing mainstream Hollywood movies for chancier, non-commercial independent fare, was the result of an ethical decision on her part to make films with social importance. A less-observant viewer might think that the rebel Polley played in her political life that had previously manifested itself in her profession was now driving her to the verge of career suicide in terms of popularity, marketability, and choice of future roles. However, that interpretation does not recognize the extraordinary talent that will always keep her in demand by directors, if not casting agents, with an eye on the opening weekend box office. One must understand Polley's career progression in light of her attendance at the Canadian Film Centre's directors program and her production of short films, including Don't Think Twice (1999) and the highly praised I Shout Love (2001). Polley is a cinema artist. This woman wants to make, and will make films. Thus, we can understand her career choices as a desire to work with and understand the technique of some of the best directors in film, including David Cronenberg, Michael Winterbottom, and Hal Hartley.
Polley is as renowned for her intelligence as for her remarkable talent. The problem of the intelligent person in the acting field is that the actor, as artist, in not ultimately in control of their medium, and it is artistic control that is the hallmark of the great artist. The controlling intelligence on a movie set is the director, and her attendance at the Canadian Film Centre has given her a new perspective on acting. The actor, she says, should not try to give a complete performance for the camera (that is, control the representation on film) but must remember that the function of the actor is to give the director as much coverage as possible as a film, as well as a performance, is made in the editing room. According to Polley, this realization, that the film actor exists to serve the director, has given her new enthusiasm for acting. Thus, her career, and her career choices, can be seen as a quest for knowledge about the art of cinema, a journey whose fruition we will see in her future feature work as both actor and director.Away from Her (2007)
Take This Waltz (2011)- Director
- Producer
- Actress
Buckinghamshire-born Gabrielle Amanda Beaumont was the first woman to make a groundbreaking impact in Hollywood as a prolific director of episodic prime-time television. She worked on some of the most popular TV shows of the 80s and 90s, including M*A*S*H (1972), Dynasty (1981), Cagney & Lacey (1981), Hill Street Blues (1981), Miami Vice (1984), L.A. Law (1986) and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993). She also became the first female director in charge of Star Trek episodes, working on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) (including Booby Trap and Face of the Enemy, both ranking among the best of the series), as well as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995).
Beaumont's family was steeped in the arts and entertainment. Her father, Gabriel Toyne, was a master swordsman, an actor, poet and stunt man. Her mother, Diana Beaumont, was a leading lady in British films and an accomplished comedienne on the West End stage. A great-uncle was the noted thespian Sir Gerald du Maurier, more famous today as the author of the novel Svengali.
Gabrielle started out as a juvenile stage actress, debuting in a 1948 touring production of Peter Pan. She then spent five years with the ensemble of a repertory theatre company in London, appearing in classic plays like Billy Liar, Saint Joan and Five Finger Exercise. She had graduated to stage direction before joining the BBC as an editor, quickly working her way up the ladder to assistant director, production manager and producer. Having produced/directed and worked as occasional writer on several BBC documentaries and a couple of horror films, Beaumont travelled to Los Angeles in 1980 in search of new challenges. Hired by producer Aaron Spelling, she began her American sojourn by directing an episode of Vega$ (1978). She remained gainfully employed in Hollywood for the next two decades. Beaumont was a member of the Directors Guild of America, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Beaumont retired to Fornalutx, a municipality on the Spanish island of Mallorca where she spent the last two decades of her life. She was formerly married to the actor and writer Olaf Pooley and to the cinematographer Michael J. Davis, both of whom predeceased her.The Godsend (1980)
Nightmare Classics: Carmilla (1989)- Director
- Producer
- Actress
Accomplished Film Director/Writer/Producer Mira Nair was born in India and educated at Delhi University and at Harvard. She began her film career as an actor and then turned to directing award-winning documentaries, including So Far From India and India Cabaret. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988; it won the Camera D'Or (for best first feature) and the Prix du Publique (for most popular entry) at the Cannes Film Festival and 25 other international awards. Her next film, Mississippi Masala, an interracial love story set in the American South and Uganda, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, won three awards at the Venice Film Festival including Best Screenplay and The Audience Choice Award. Subsequent films include The Perez Family (with Marisa Tomei, Anjelica Huston, Alfred Molina and Chazz Palminteri), about an exiled Cuban family in Miami; and the sensuous Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, which she directed and co-wrote. Nair directed My Own Country based on Dr. Abraham Verghese's best-selling memoir about a young immigrant doctor dealing with the AIDS epidemic. Made in 1998, My Own Country starred Naveen Andrews, Glenne Headly, Marisa Tomei, Swoosie Kurtz, and Hal Holbrook, and was awarded the NAACP award for best fiction feature. Nair returned to the documentary form in August 1999 with The Laughing Club of India, which was awarded The Special Jury Prize in the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels 2000. In the summer of 2000, Nair shot Monsoon Wedding in 30 days, a story of a Punjabi wedding starring Naseeruddin Shah and an ensemble of Indian actors. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, Monsoon Wedding also won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and opened worldwide to tremendous critical and commercial acclaim. Nair's next feature was an HBO original film, Hysterical Blindness. Set in working class New Jersey in 1987, the film stars Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis, Gena Rowlands. Thurman and Lewis play single women looking for love in all the wrong places, while Rowlands, who plays Thurman's mother, adds to her daughter's hysteria when she finds Mr. Right in Ben Gazarra. The film received great critical acclaim and the highest ratings for HBO, garnering an audience of 15 million, a Golden Globe for Uma Thurman, and 3 Emmy Awards. Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Nair joined a group of 11 renowned filmmakers, each commissioned to direct a film that was 11 minutes, 9 seconds and one frame long. Nair's film is a retelling of real events in the life of the Hamdani family in Queens, whose eldest son was missing after September 11, and was then accused by the media of being a terrorist. 11.09.01 is the true story of a mother's search for her son who did not return home on that fateful day. In May 2003, Nair helmed the Focus Features production of the Thackeray classic, Vanity Fair, a provocative period tale set in post-colonial England, in which Reese Witherspoon plays the lead, Becky Sharp. The film is scheduled to release in Fall 2004. Nair's upcoming projects include Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul for HBO, and Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist, and there are also plans to take Monsoon Wedding to Broadway. Mirabai Films is establishing an annual filmmaker's laboratory, Maisha, which will be dedicated to the support of visionary screenwriters and directors in East Africa and India. The first lab, which is only for screenwriters, will be launched in August 2005 in Kampala, Uganda.Mississippi Masala (1992)
The Perez Family (1995)
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Vanity Fair (2004)
New York, I Love You (2009)
Amelia (2009)
Queen of Katwe (2016)- Director
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Julie Taymor is an Academy Award-nominated director, known for such films as Frida (2002) and Across the Universe (2007).
She was born on December 15, 1952, in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Her father, Melvin Lester Taymor, was a gynecologist. Her mother, Elizabeth Bernstein, was a teacher of political science. Young Taymor was fond of international folklore and mythology, and also developed a passion for theatre. She spent her formative years living in several countries. As a teenager, during the 1960s, she lived in Sri Lanka and India with the Experiment in International Living program, then studied acting in Paris, at the mime school of Jacques Lecoq. From 1969 to 1974, she studied theatre and mythology at Oberlin College, graduating in 1974 with a degree in folklore and mythology.
During the 1970s, Taymor lived in Japan, studying the art of puppetry and Japanese theatre. Then, she spent five years in Indonesia, working as director of international theatre with Asian, European, and American actors. Back in the USA, she worked on and off Broadway. There, she achieved her first success with staging a fairy tale, "The King Stag", and then toured 66 cities across the world, including Los Angeles, Venice, Tokyo, and Moscow.
In the 1990s, Taymor directed several classic operas. Her 1992 production of Igor Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex" in Japan earned the Emmy Award. Then, she directed the 1993 production of "The Magic Flute" by 'Wolfgang Mozart', in Florence, with conductor Zubin Mehta, and the acclaimed 1994 production of "Salome" in St. Petersburg, Russia, with conductor Valery Gergiev.
In New York, she continued a stellar theatrical career, directing such productions as William Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" and "Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass" at the Lincoln Center. In 1997, Taymor directed a massive Walt Disney Company's production of "The Lion King" on Broadway, for which she also co-designed over a 100 costumes and masks of animals, and earned two Tony Awards.
Her film, Frida (2002), received six Oscar nominations, and two Oscars, for make-up and for the music score by Elliot Goldenthal. Taymor continued her success with the 2004 production of "The Magic Flute" at the Metropolitan Opera (which is now in repertoires at the Met), and the 2006 staging of "Grendel" at the Los Angeles Opera and, later, at the Linolcn Center Festival. Taymor's experience with cross-genre and cross-cultural productions came to culmination in her latest film, Across the Universe (2007). It is a musical set in the 1960s England, Vietnam, and America, where a love story and social protest are intertwined with over thirty songs by The Beatles.
Outside of her directing profession, Taymor amassed puppets, masks and folk art from around the world. As an artist, she has been involved in making puppets, masks, costumes and stage sets. Since 1980, Julie Taymor has been a long-time collaborator with the Oscar-winning composer, Elliot Goldenthal, and the couple lives in Manhattan.Titus (1999)
Frida (2002)
Across the Universe (2007)
The Tempest (2010)- Director
- Producer
- Actress
Awarded the Screen Leader Award for Outstanding Leadership to the Screen Industry, Nadia is one of Australia's most respected and unique filmmakers.
Known for directing Australian classic films "Malcolm" and "The Big Steal", Tass's other feature works include "Rikky and Pete", "Mr Reliable", "Amy", and "Matching Jack". Her first feature in the US was "Pure Luck" starring Danny Glover and Martin Short. She also directs films and high-end television movies in the US for Universal Studios, Disney, Warner Bros, ABC, CBS and the UK's BBC.
Her film work has garnered over 70 international awards including Best Director AFI ("Malcolm"); Best Director, Milan International Film Festival and Best Film Cannes Cinephile Prix du Jury ("Matching Jack"); Le Grande Prix due Cinecole and Les Mureaux Grand Prix (Cannes Junior) at Cannes Film Festival ("Amy").
The American Cinematheque in Los Angeles honored Ms. Tass with a Retrospective of her work in 2012, which traveled through different venues across America. She has had retrospectives of her body of work in Moscow, Cape Town & Johannesburg, Hawaii and New Delhi. In addition, Ms. Tass has sat on film festival juries for the Hawaii Film Festival, St. Tropez (as the head of the jury,) Asian Festival Of First Films, Pune International Film Festival (as the chair of the jury), and more recently served as Head of Jury for Cinefest Oz. She also serves as a juror for the International Chapter of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), and in 2021 and 2022 served as a juror for the DGA documentary award.
Tass has worked with actors of note on stage and screen including: Shailene Woodley, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Harvey Keitel, Mia Farrow, Marcia Gay Harden, Rachel Griffiths, Ben Mendelsohn, Storm Reid, Danny Glover, Martin Short, Connie Britton, Yvonne Strahovski, Damon Herriman, Brian Cox, David Strathairn, AnnaSophia Robb.
A consummate professional, Ms. Tass has given back to the industry by presenting Masterclasses around the world from New York to London to Singapore to nearby New Zealand (Auckland & Wellington) and, of course, in Australia's major film cities of Sydney and Melbourne on many occasions. She regularly lectures at the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne University) and Deakin University (where she is an Adjunct Professor), and has guest lectured at Beijing Normal University, Yunnan University, Wuhan, Chongqing University and Beijing Film Academy in China.
Her latest film is "Oleg" (2021), a documentary about the life of Russian film star Oleg Vidov, his pursuit of freedom, and his escape from the USSR in 1985.Pure Luck (1991)
The Miracle Worker (2000)
Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story (2001)
Samantha: An American Girl Holiday (2004) (TV)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Patricia Rozema was born on 20 August 1958 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She is a director and writer, known for Into the Forest (2015), Mansfield Park (1999) and Grey Gardens (2009).Mansfield Park (1999)
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008)- Producer
- Writer
- Editor
Jessica Sharzer is writer, producer, and director best known for her work on Speak (2004), Nerve (2016), American Horror Story (2011-2015), and the new mystery thriller A Simple Favor (2018). Sharzer has been nominated for 3 Primetime Emmy's for her work on American Horror Story. Sharzer is working on The Young Elites based on Marie Lu's novel.Speak (2004)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Sharon Maguire was born on 28 November 1960 in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, Wales, UK. She is a director and producer, known for Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Incendiary (2008).Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Incendiary (2008)
Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Sara Sugarman was born in Rhyl, Denbighshire, Wales, UK. Sara is an actor and director, known for Vinyl (2012), Very Annie Mary (2001) and Sid and Nancy (1986). Sara was previously married to David Thewlis.Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Deborah Kampmeier was born on 21 November 1964. She is a director and writer, known for The Gilded Age (2022), Harlan Coben's Shelter (2023) and Star Trek: Picard (2020).Hounddog (2007)- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Anjelica Huston was born on July 8, 1951 to director and actor John Huston and Russian prima ballerina Enrica 'Ricki' Soma. Huston spent most of her childhood overseas, in Ireland and England, and in 1968 first dipped her toe into the world of show business, taking on the lead role of her father's movie A Walk with Love and Death (1969). However, before it was released, her mother died in a car accident, at 39, and Huston relocated to the United States, where the very tall, exotically-beautiful young woman modeled for several years.
While modeling, Huston made sporadic cameo appearances in a couple films, but decided to pursue it as a career in the early '80s. She prepared herself by reaching out to acting coach Peggy Feury and began to get roles. The first notable part was in Bob Rafelson's remake of the classic noir movie The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) (in which Jack Nicholson, with whom Huston had been living since 1973, was the star). After a few more years of on-again, off-again supporting work, her father perfectly cast her as calculating, imperious Maerose, the daughter of a Mafia don whose love is scorned by a hit man (Nicholson again) in his film adaptation of Richard Condon's Mafia-satire novel Prizzi's Honor (1985). Huston won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, making her the first person in Academy Award history to win an Oscar when a parent and a grandparent (her father and grandfather Walter Huston) had also won one.
Huston thereafter worked prolifically, including notable roles in Francis Ford Coppola's Gardens of Stone (1987), Barry Sonnenfeld's film versions of the Charles Addams cartoons The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), in which she portrayed Addams matriarch Morticia, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Probably her finest performance on-screen, however, was as Lilly, the veteran, iron-willed con artist in Stephen Frears' The Grifters (1990), for which she received another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. A sentimental favorite is her performance as the lead in her father's final film, an adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead (1987) -- with her many years of residence in Ireland, Huston's Irish accent in the film is authentic.
Endowed with her father's great height and personal boldness, and her mother's beauty and aristocratic nose, Huston certainly cuts an imposing figure, and brings great confidence and authority to her performances. She clearly takes her craft seriously and has come into her own as a strong actress, emerging from under the shadow of her father, who passed away in 1987. Huston married the sculptor Robert Graham in 1992. The couple lived in Venice Beach until Graham's death in 2008.Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) (TV)
Agnes Browne (1999)
Riding the Bus with My Sister (2005) (TV)- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Lesli Linka Glatter is a director of film, network, cable, and premium cable television drama, with both pilots and episodes to her credit. Lesli's TV work includes Homeland (2011), The Newsroom (2012), The Walking Dead (2010), Justified (2010), Ray Donovan (2013), Masters of Sex (2013), Nashville (2012), Boss (2011), True Blood (2008), Mad Men (2007), The Good Wife (2009), Weeds (2005), House (2004), Heroes (2006), The West Wing (1999), NYPD Blue (1993), ER (1994), and Freaks and Geeks (1999), to name a few. Her first series was Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories (1985) followed by Twin Peaks (1990), for which she received her first Directors Guild Award nomination. Lesli has also directed numerous pilots including Grace (2011), Gilmore Girls (2000), In My Life (2002), Newton (2003), Six (2017) and Pretty Little Liars (2010). In addition, Lesli was the Co-Executive Producer/Director of Shawn Ryan's The Chicago Code (2011), NBC's The Playboy Club (2011), John Wells' Citizen Baines (2000), HBO's The Leftovers (2014) and was the Executive Producer/Director of Homeland (2011) Seasons 3 through 8.
Lesli began her directing career through the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women. Her short film, Tales of Meeting and Parting (1985), was nominated for an Academy Award, as well as winning numerous awards in festivals throughout the country.
Lesli made her feature film directorial debut with New Line's coming-of-age comedy, Now and Then (1995), featuring Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, Rosie O'Donnell and Christina Ricci, followed by Polygram's romantic period drama The Proposition (1998), featuring Kenneth Branagh, Madeleine Stowe and William Hurt. She directed HBO's State of Emergency (1994), which she received a Cable ACE nomination for Best Picture, as well as a Humanitas Award nomination. Lesli's other HBO films include Into Into the Homeland (1987) and The Promise.
In 2010, Lesli was nominated for an Emmy for directing the Mad Men (2007) episode "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency (2009)," as well as winning a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Dramatic Series for the same episode. In 2013, she was nominated for her third Directors Guild Award for the Homeland episode Q&A (2012) as well as an Emmy nomination for the same episode. In 2013, Lesli was nominated for her fourth Director's Guild Award for the season finale of Homeland (2011), The Star (2013). In 2015, Lesli won the Director's Guild Award for the Homeland (2011) episode From A to B and Back Again (2014) and received her 3rd Emmy nomination for that episode as well. Lesli's 6th DGA Award nomination was for the Homeland (2011) episode The Tradition of Hospitality (2015) as well as her 4th Emmy nomination. Lesli received her 5th Emmy nomination for the Homeland (2011) Season Finale, America First (2017) and her 7th DGA nomination for the America First (2017) Season Finale, Paean to the People (2018). Lesli has also received 2 Emmy Nominations as part of the America First (2017) production team for Best Drama Series.
Lesli serves as the 1st Vice President of the Directors Guild of America, is on the DGA's Western Directors Council, as well as being an adviser at the Sundance Directors Lab. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Directors Branch of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Lesli recently received the Caucus Foundation Award, the Dorothy Arzner Directing Award from Women in Film, and the Franklin Schaffner Award from the American Film Institute, as well as an Honorary Degree from the American Film Institute. Lesli has been actively mentoring for many years and most recently helped develop the successful program, NBC Female Forward. Lesli has been involved on projects for Netflix, Amazon, Showtime and Epix.
Prior to her work as a director, Lesli was a modern dance choreographer, working throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States.Now and Then (1995)
Amazing Stories (TV Series)
Twin Peaks (TV Series)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)
Gilmore Girls (TV Series)
The O.C. (TV Series)
Grey's Anatomy (TV Series)
The West Wing (TV Series)
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (TV Series)
ER (TV Series)
Weeds (TV Series)
The Mentalist (TV Series)
House M.D. (TV Series)
The Good Wife (TV Series)
Mad Men (TV Series)
Lie to Me (TV Series)
The Playboy Club (TV Series)
Pretty Little Liars (TV Series)
True Blood (TV Series)
Nashville (TV Series)
The Walking Dead (TV Series)
Ray Donovan (TV Series)
The Newsroom (TV Series)
Masters of Sex (TV Series)
Homeland (TV Series)- Producer
- Actress
- Director
Since melting audiences' hearts at the age of just six in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Drew Barrymore has emerged as one of the most beloved and singularly gifted actresses of her generation. Born in Culver City, California to John Drew Barrymore and Jaid Barrymore, the clutches of fame were near inescapable for young Drew, her father being a member of the esteemed showbiz dynasty fronted by stage star Maurice Barrymore, his thespian wife Georgiana and their three children: Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and John Barrymore.
Tailgating a turbulent adolescence that saw her grapple with insobriety, substance abuse, and cutthroat media vitriol, a diligent Barrymore threw herself into her career throughout the early-mid nineties, first with a succession of 'bad girl' parts in cultish B-pictures like Poison Ivy (1992), Guncrazy (1992) and - fittingly - Bad Girls (1994); then warmly received turns in prestige vehicles such as Boys on the Side (1995), Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and Wes Craven's game-changing Scream (1996). Equal portions of goofball - The Wedding Singer (1998), Never Been Kissed (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000) - and gravitas - Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Donnie Darko (2001), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) - came next, with a Golden Globe-grabbing pièce de résistance - her divine incarnation of Edith Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens (2009) - confirming that her skill set was every bit as forceful and far-reaching as imagined.
Having already set in motion a bunch of lucrative projects via production house Flower Films (co-est. with Nancy Juvonen in '95), Barrymore fastened an additional string to her bow when she spearheaded the sports dramedy Whip It (2009), her glowingly appraised directorial debut. Fresh off a healthy run of movie parts at the launch of the 2010s, her star turn as zombified suburban realtor Sheila Hammond - a tour de force at once dizzy and detailed - on Netflix's Santa Clarita Diet (2017) saw her step with trademark resolve into newer territory still: the flourishing world of small screen entertainment, a metamorphosis she continues to espouse with her role as compère of spirited daytime staple The Drew Barrymore Show (2020).Whip It (2009)- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Diane Keaton was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Deanne (Keaton), an amateur photographer, and John Newton Ignatius "Jack" Hall, a civil engineer and real estate broker. She studied Drama at Santa Ana College, before dropping out in favor of the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. After appearing in summer stock for several months, she got her first major stage role in the Broadway rock musical "Hair". As understudy to the lead, she gained attention by not removing any of her clothing. In 1968, Woody Allen cast her in his Broadway play "Play It Again, Sam," which had a successful run. It was during this time that she became involved with Allen and appeared in a number of his films. The first one was Play It Again, Sam (1972), the screen adaptation of the stage play. That same year Francis Ford Coppola cast her as Kay in the Oscar-winning The Godfather (1972), and she was on her way to stardom. She reprized that role in the film's first sequel, The Godfather Part II (1974). She then appeared with Allen again in Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975).
In 1977, she broke away from her comedy image to appear in the chilling Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), which won her a Golden Globe nomination. It was the same year that she appeared in what many regard as her best performance, in the title role of Annie Hall (1977), which Allen wrote specifically for her (her real last name is Hall, and her nickname is Annie), and what an impact she made. She won the Oscar and the British Award for Best Actress, and Allen won the Directors Award from the DGA. She started a fashion trend with her unisex clothes and was the poster girl for a lot of young males. Her mannerisms and awkward speech became almost a national craze. The question being asked, though, was, "Is she just a lightweight playing herself, or is there more depth to her personality?" For whatever reason, she appeared in but one film a year for the next two years and those films were by Allen. When they broke up she was next involved with Warren Beatty and appeared in his film Reds (1981), as the bohemian female journalist Louise Bryant. For her performance, she received nominations for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe. For the rest of the 1980s she appeared infrequently in films but won nominations in three of them. Attempting to break the typecasting she had fallen into, she took on the role of a confused, somewhat naive woman who becomes involved with Middle Eastern terrorists in The Little Drummer Girl (1984). To offset her lack of movie work, Diane began directing. She directed the documentary Heaven (1987), as well as some music videos. For television she directed an episode of the popular, but strange, Twin Peaks (1990).
In the 1990s, she began to get more mature roles, though she reprized the role of Kay Corleone in the third "Godfather" epic, The Godfather Part III (1990). She appeared as the wife of Steve Martin in the hit Father of the Bride (1991) and again in Father of the Bride Part II (1995). In 1993 she once again teamed with Woody Allen in Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), which was well received. In 1995 she received high marks for Unstrung Heroes (1995), her first major feature as a director.China Beach-Fever (1990)
CBS Schoolbreak Special: The Girl with the Crazy Brother
Twin Peaks: Episode #2.15 (1991)
Wildflower (1991) (TV)
Unstrung Heroes (1995)
Hanging Up (2000)- Director
- Production Designer
- Producer
Hardwicke's first film as a director was the Sundance winner THIRTEEN which explored the transition into teenage years with an authenticity that still captures young audiences (1.3 billion Tik Tok engagements.) Hardwicke directed LORDS OF DOGTOWN before she became best known as the director of TWILIGHT, which launched the blockbuster franchise and has since earned over three billion dollars. Recently her indie film PRISONER'S DAUGHTER premiered at TIFF 2022 and DREAMS IN THE WITCHHOUSE dropped on Netflix October 2022 as part of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities. MAFIA MAMMA premieres in theaters on April 14 2023.Thirteen (2003)
Lord of Dogtown (2005)
The Nativity Story (2006)
Twlight (2008)
Red Riding Hood (2011)
Plush (2013)- Editorial Department
- Director
- Writer
Christine Jeffs was born on 29 January 1963 in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. She is a director and writer, known for Sunshine Cleaning (2008), Rain (2001) and Stroke (1993).Sylvia (2003)
Sunshine Cleaning (2008)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Andrea Arnold was born on 5 April 1961 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for American Honey (2016), Fish Tank (2009) and Red Road (2006).Fish Tank (2009)
Wuthering Heights (2011)- Director
- Writer
- Composer
Sally Potter made her first 8mm film aged fourteen. She has since written and directed seven feature films, as well as many short films (including THRILLER and PLAY) and a television series, and has directed opera (Carmen for the ENO in 2007) and other live work. Her background is in choreography, music, performance art and experimental film. ORLANDO (1992), Sally Potter's bold adaptation of Virginia Woolf's classic novel, first brought her work to a wider audience. It was followed by THE TANGO LESSON (1996), THE MAN WHO CRIED (2000), YES (2004), RAGE (2009) and GINGER & ROSA (2012).
Sally Potter is known for innovative form and risk-taking subject matter and has worked with many of the most notable cinema actors of our time. Sally Potter's films have won over forty international awards and received both Academy Award and BAFTA nominations. She has had full career retrospectives of her film and video work at the BFI Southbank, London, MoMA, New York, and the Cinematheque, Madrid. She was awarded an OBE in 2012. Her book Naked Cinema - Working with Actors was published by Faber & Faber in March, 2014. Sally Potter co-founded her production company Adventure Pictures with producer Christopher Sheppard.Orlando (1992)
The Man Who Cried (2000)
Yes (2004)
Ginger & Rosa (2012)- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
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 AmericaWinter's Bone- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Though Academy Award®, Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award winning writer and director Susanne Bier's work often plays out against a wide-reaching global backdrop, its focus is intimate, carefully exploring the explosive emotions and complexities of familial bonds. This unique combination is part of the formula that has made her Denmark's leading female filmmaker and a powerhouse worldwide.
Bier's 2010 film In a Better World won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011, as well as an Italian Golden Globe Award® for Best European Film and Best Director at the European Film Awards. She previously helmed the multi-award-winning After the Wedding (2006), which was also an Academy Award® nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, and was remade as an English-language film in 2019 starring Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Billy Crudup.
Bier won an Emmy Award in 2016 for directing the six-part AMC mini-series The Night Manager, based on the 1993 novel of the same name by John le Carré, with stars Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Colman all winning Golden Globes for their work.
Bier followed this with the 2018 Netflix film Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock, which went on to become the most-watched film in Netflix history. In 2020, she directed the six-part HBO series The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, the network's first original series to grow its audience each week.
Prior to this, Bier co-wrote and directed the romantic comedy The One and Only (1999), which won Best Film at the Danish Robert Awards and was the most watched domestic film in Denmark in 20 years, with one-fifth of the country's population having seen it at the cinema.
In 2002, she directed Open Hearts, shot in accordance with the Dogme '95 filmmaking aesthetic. The film won numerous awards, including the Audience Award at the Robert Festival (Danish Academy Award) and the International Film Critics' Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Bier followed this with Brothers (2004), which won, among others, the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2007, Bier directed the award-winning Things We Lost in the Fire, starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro, her first English-language film.
In 2012, Bier made her triumphant return to the genre with the 2013 winner of the European Film Award for Best Comedy, Love Is All You Need, starring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm. In 2014, Bier directed A Second Chance, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Most recently, Susanne Bier directed the Showtime limited series The First Lady, starring Viola Davis, Michelle Pfieffer, and Gillian Anderson.After the Wedding (2006)
Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
The Nanny Diaries (2007)
Serena (2014)
The Night Manager (2016) (mini)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Shari Springer Berman was born on 13 July 1963 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a director and writer, known for American Splendor (2003), Things Heard & Seen (2021) and The Nanny Diaries (2007). She has been married to Robert Pulcini since 1994.American Splendor (2003)- Director
- Writer
- Actress
Tamara Jenkins was born on 2 May 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She is a director and writer, known for The Savages (2007), Private Life (2018) and Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). She has been married to Jim Taylor since 2002. They have one child.Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
The Savages (2007)- Director
- Producer
- Script and Continuity Department
Randa Haines was born on 20 February 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a director and producer, known for Children of a Lesser God (1986), Antwone Fisher (2002) and Something About Amelia (1984).Hill Street Blues (1981-83)
Something About Amelia (1984) (TV)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Bang! You're Dead! (1985)
Children of a Lesser God (1986)
The Doctor (1991)
Tales from the Crypt: Judy, You're Not Yourself Today (1990)
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)
Dance With Me (1998)
The Ron Clark Story (2006) (TV)- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
The remarkable, hyper-ambitious Material Girl who never stops re-inventing herself, Madonna has sold over three hundred million records and CDs to adoring fans worldwide. Her film career, however, is another story. Her performances have consistently drawn scathing or laughable reviews from film critics, and the films have usually had tepid, if any, success at the box office. Born Madonna Louise Ciccone in August 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York in 1978 and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey, joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called Breakfast Club and began working with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco-oriented songs. New York producer/D.J. Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes to Sire Records in early 1982 and the rest is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multimillion-selling albums, and her musical and fashion influence on young women was felt around the globe. Madonna first appeared on screen in two low-budget films marketed to an adolescent audience: A Certain Sacrifice (1979) and Vision Quest (1985). However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. Madonna's next effort with then husband Sean Penn, Shanghai Surprise (1986), was savaged by critics, although the resilient star managed to somewhat improve her standing with her next two films, the offbeat Who's That Girl (1987) (although she did receive decidedly mixed reviews, they weren't as negative as those of her previous effort) and the quirky Damon Runyon-inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989). The big-budget and star-filled Dick Tracy (1990) had her playing bad girl "Breathless Mahoney" flirting with Warren Beatty, but the epic failed to catch fire at the box office. Taking an earthier role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (1992), a story about female baseball players during W.W.II. However, she again drew the wrath of critics with the sexy whodunit Body of Evidence (1992). Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Perón in Evita (1996), a fairly well received screen adaptation of the hugely successful Broadway musical, for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Material Girl stayed away from the movie cameras for several years, returning to co-star in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (2000), followed by the painful Swept Away (2002). If those films weren't bad enough, she was woefully miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the James Bond adventure Die Another Day (2002). After finally admitting that her acting days were over, Madonna began a directing career in 2008 with the barely remembered Filth and Wisdom (2008) and a year later she reunited with Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) director Alek Keshishian to develop a script about the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor that led to his abdication in 1936: the result, a movie named W.E. (2011), starring James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the infernal but still royal couple, was released in 2011 to lukewarm critics but it gathered one Oscar nomination for costumes and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for "Masterpiece".W.E. (2011)- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Elaine May (born under the name Elaine Iva Berlin) is an American actress, comedian, film director, playwright, and screenwriter from Philadelphia. Her professional career started in the 1950s and is still ongoing. She has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. She is best remembered for directing the Cold War-themed action comedy "Ishtar" (1987). She won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director, but the film has had a vocal minority of critics who defend its quality.
In 1932, May was born to a Jewish-American family. Both her parents were theatrical actors. Her father Jack Berlin was also a theater director and led his own traveling Yiddish theater company. Her mother was actress Ida Aaron. May made her stage debut c. 1935, at the age of 3. Her father had decided to include her in his performances. As a a child actress, she was reportedly cast in the roles of boys.
The theater company toured extensively, and May was part of their tours. She kept changing schools, enrolling for a few weeks and then moving to another city. May reputedly hated school, but loved reading books on her own. Her favorite topics were fairy tales and mythology.
Jack Berlin died c. 1942, and May's career as a child actress consequently ended. She was left in the custody of her mother. The duo settled in Los Angeles, and May eventually enrolled in Hollywood High School. In 1946, May dropped out of school. In 1948, she married her her first husband, the toy inventor Marvin May. She was only 16-years-old at the time of her marriage. She would later keep her husband's surname as her professional name.
In 1949, May had her only child, Jeannie Brette May. Jeannie would later become a professional actress in her own right, under the name Jeannie Berlin. May and her husband separated c. 1950, and she received a divorce in 1960. She started supporting herself through a series of odd jobs.
In 1950, May was interested in attending college, but most colleges in California required applicants to have high school diplomas. As a high school dropout, she did not have the necessary diploma. Learning that the University of Chicago did not use this requirement, she hitch-hiked her way to Chicago, At the time her personal fortune consisted of 7 dollars.
Once she arrived in Chicago, May started informally taking classes at the university by auditing, sitting in without enrolling. She habitually engaged in discussions with her instructors. She once had a fight with a philosophy instructor because of their different interpretations of the motives behind Socrates' apology. May was introduced to aspiring actor Mike Nichols (1931-2014),who was also attending the University. They bonded over their shared passion for the theater.
In 1955, May became one of the charter members of the Compass Players, a Chicago-based improvisational theater group. Nichols joined the group shortly after. The two of them formed a working partnership, jointly developing improvised comedy sketches. May helped the Compass Players to become a highly popular comedy troupe, due to her talent for satire. She helped in the training of novice members of the group.
In 1957, Nichols was asked to leave the Compass Players. His popularity had outshone most members of the group, and had caused internal conflicts. May left the group with him. They then decided to form their own stand-up comedy team, "Nichols and May". Their improvisational skills, and ability to come up with fresh material allowed them to impress their audience.
In 1960, the comedy duo made their Broadway debut, with the show "An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May". A recording of the show won the 1962 "Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album". "Nichols and May" became very popular in New York City, performing in sold-out shows. They also started making appearances in radio and television, and even recorded commercials.
May was reportedly surprised with her own success. She had spend much of her adult life in near-poverty, but she was now earning a regular income from show business. She joked in an interview that she was practically barefoot when she arrived in New York, and now had to get used to wearing high heels.
In 1961, the duo was at the height of their fame. But they decided to dissolve their partnership in order to pursue solo careers. Nichols started working as a Broadway stage director, while May started her new career as a playwright. Her most successful play was "Adaptation" (1969), which she also directed. For her work as a theatrical director, she won the 1969 "Outer Critics Circle Award, Best Director".
May made her debut as a film director with the black comedy "A New Leaf" (1971). It was an adaptation of a short story by Jack Ritchie (1922-1983), depicting the story of an impoverished patrician who marries a wealthy heiress for her money. The main character initially considers murdering his wife to inherit her wealth, but first he has to protect her from other predators who were after her money.
Her first film found little success at the box office, but was praised by critics and was nominated for the "Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy". It later earned a reputation as a cult classic, and in 2019 it was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.
Her second film was the romantic comedy "The Heartbreak Kid" (1972). It concerns a newlywed man who falls madly in love with a younger woman while on his honeymoon. He pursues his romantic interest obsessively despite all signs that his love is unrequited, and despite the disapproval of the woman's protective father. The film was critically acclaimed, and has at times been listed in retrospectives concerning the funniest American films.
In an unusual career move, her third film was not a comedy. It was the rather bleak gangster film "Mikey and Nicky" (1976). It depicts a small-time mobster whose life is in danger, resorting to asking for help from his childhood friend. While creating this film, May got involved in a legal dispute with the film studio Paramount Pictures. The studio eventually decided to only allow a limited release for the film. The film found a niche audience in the home video market, but May's career as a director suffered from this dispute. She was effectively blacklisted.
May decided to focus on her screenwriting career. She found success with the script to the fantasy-comedy "Heaven Can Wait" (1978), about the afterlife of a man who died prematurely. The film was based on a 1938 play by Harry Segall (1892-1975), and also served as a remake to the classic film "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) which was based on the same play. The film earned about 99 million dollars at the worldwide box office, and was a critical hit. May was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the award was instead won by rival screenwriter Oliver Stone (1946-).
During the early 1980s, May mainly worked as an uncredited script doctor. She "polished" scripts by other screenwriters. Her greatest success in this role was the romantic comedy "Tootsie" (1982), for which she wrote several additional scenes. She attempted her comeback as a director with the action comedy "Ishtar" (1987), which became a box office flop for the film studio Columbia Pictures. The film's failure reportedly convinced Columbia's parent company Coca-Cola to sell the under-performing studio to Sony.
"Ishtar" was derided at the time as the worst film of its era by many critics, but was also defended by a vocal minority of critics. It has since attracted a cult audience, who consider this to be a great film. However the film's failure ended May's career as a film director and damaged her reputation. She also ceased working as a screenwriter for several years, reduced to working as an actress again.
May made her comeback as a screenwriter with the comedy film "The Birdcage" (1996), a remake of the European comedy "La Cage aux Folles" (The Cage of Madwomen, 1978). In the film, the openly gay parents to a young man have to pretend to be straight in an attempt to impress their son's prospective in-laws. The film earned about 185 million dollars at the worldwide box office, the greatest hit in May's career up to that point. She was nominated for the "Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay", but the award was instead won by rival screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton (1955-).
May found more critical success with her next screenplay, for the political film "Primary Colors" (1998). It was an adaptation of the roman à clef novel "Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics" (1996) by Joe Klein (1946-). The novel itself was a fictionalized version of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, and depicts an idealistic campaign worker's disillusionment with the politician. The film's cast were nominated for several awards. May herself received her second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the award was instead won by rival screenwriter Bill Condon (1955-).
May largely retired from screenwriting since the end of the 1990s. As an actress, she had a supporting role in the crime-comedy "Small Time Crooks" (2000). The film concerned nouveau riche criminals, who attempt to socialize with the American upper class. For this role, she won the "Best Supporting Actress Award" at the National Society of Film Critics Awards.
May lived in retirement until joining the cast of the television mini-series "Crisis in Six Scenes" (2016), her first television role in several decades. The series was created by Woody Allen (1935-), who happened to be an old friend of May.
In 2018, May made a theatrical comeback in Broadway. She played the elderly gallery owner Gladys Green in a revival of the play "The Waverly Gallery" (2000) by Kenneth Lonergan (1962-). In the play, Gladys shows early signs of Alzheimer's disease, and her family has to deal with her mental decline. May received critical acclaim for this role. For this role, she won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. At age 87, she was the second-oldest winner of a Tony Award for acting.
As of 2021, May is 89-years-old. She is no longer very active, but she reportedly has plans to direct another film. She remains a popular actress.A New Leaf (1971)
The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
Ishtar (1987)- Director
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Spheeris is often referred to as a 'rock 'n roll anthropologist'.
In 1974 she formed the first Los Angeles music video production company, ROCK 'N REEL. She concluded her music video work with the Grammy-nominated, "Bohemian Rhapsody" video for "Wayne's World". Spheeris' feature film debut was the 1979 documentary on the Los Angeles punk scene, "The Decline of Western Civilization" which was received with stunning and unanimous critical praise. In 1983 she wrote and directed "Suburbia", produced by Roger Corman. It is a disturbing and prophetic story of rebellious, homeless kids squatting in abandoned houses, trying to make new families, and protecting one another. "Suburbia" won first place at the Chicago Film Festival. Almost 25 years later her documentary, "The Decline of Western Civilization, Part III" would eerily mirror the events she scripted in "Suburbia". In the mid-80s she directed "The Boys Next Door", starring Charlie Sheen and Maxwell Caulfield, then "Dudes" starring John Cryer, Flea, and Daniel Roebuck. Both films have attained cult classic status. "The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years" was released in 1988, again to spectacular critical acclaim. Commentaries from Ozzy Osbourne, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Alice Cooper, Lemmy of Motorhead, Poison, etc. make it one of the most memorable pieces of rock film history.
In 1992, Spheeris directed her seventh feature, and first studio film, "Wayne's World" at Paramount Pictures. Subsequently she directed and produced "The Beverly Hillbillies" (Fox), wrote and directed "The Little Rascals" (Universal), then directed "Black Sheep" (Paramount), etc. In 1999, Spheeris documented The Ozzfest, America's most successful summer concert tour, and the reunion performances of the original Black Sabbath. Both as director and one of the cinematographers, Spheeris achieved a remarkable and historic film which offers the audience a unique view of life on the road: "We Sold Our Souls For Rock 'N Roll".
(2016) She is currently touring with her Producer/daughter Anna Fox, screening "The Decline" trilogy in support of the Shout Factory DVD release.Wayne's World (1992)
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
The Little Rascals (1994)
Black Sheep (1996)
Senseless (1998)- Director
- Producer
- Editor
Began her career directing music videos for acts like Tone Loc, Depeche Mode, Indigo Girls, NWA, Hanson and Sonic Youth and made her first feature in 92 with Guncrazy starring Drew Barrymore. Ms Barrymore received a Golden Globe Nomination. She then went on to direct feature films starring Chris Rock-CB4, Adam Sandler in Billy Madison, Dave Chappelle in Half Baked, Britney Spears in Crossroads and most recently, 13: The Musical for Netflix. She is also known for her documentary work on Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child and The Punk Singer about Kathleen Hanna. After having 2 kids with her husband Mike D of the Beastie Boys she started a career in Television has directed on shows such as Grey's Anatomy, Dead To Me, The Politician and P Valley. She directed the pilot for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. She continues to work in documentaries, episodic television and feature films.Guncrazy (1992)
Billy Madison (1995)
Best Men (1998)
Skipped Parts (2000)
Crossroads (2002)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Kasi Lemmons was born on 24 February 1961 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Harriet (2019), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Candyman (1992). She has been married to Vondie Curtis-Hall since 19 August 1995. They have two children.Eve's Bayou (1997)
Talk to Me (2007)
Black Nativity (2013)- Producer
- Director
Mimi Leder was born on 26 January 1952 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a producer and director, known for The Morning Show (2019), On the Basis of Sex (2018) and Deep Impact (1998). She has been married to Gary Werntz since 26 January 1986. They have one child. She was previously married to Allen Garfield.China Beach (1988-91)
ER (1994-2009)
The Peacemaker (1997)
Deep Impact (1998)
Pay It Forward (2000)
The West Wing: Election Day: Part I (2006)
Shameless (2011-2015)
Nashville: Lovesick Blues (2012)
Smash: The Workshop (2012) & The Dress Rehearsal (2013)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Nanette Burstein was born on 23 May 1970 in Buffalo, New York, USA. She is a director and producer, known for On the Ropes (1999), American Teen (2008) and Going the Distance (2010). She is married to Scott Anderson (XV).The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
Going the Distance (2010)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Asia Argento was born in Rome, Italy, into a family of actors and filmmakers, both occupations which she has herself pursued. She made her debut when she was only nine years old in Sergio Citti's Sogni e bisogni (1985). In 1988 she had the leading role in Cristina Comencini's first film, Zoo (1988), and was part of the cast of The Church (1989), directed by Michele Soavi. The following year she played Nanni Moretti's daughter in Red Wood Pigeon (1989) (also directed by Moretti).
It was with Close Friends (1992), written and directed by Michele Placido, that Asia's career really took off and she was able to move on from playing very young girls to more mature, complex roles. The movie was well-received at the Cannes International Film Festival. In Trauma (1993), she worked for the first time with her father, famed Italian horror director Dario Argento (her mother is one of Argento's favorite actresses, Daria Nicolodi, playing an anorexic girl in search of her parents' killer. The Phantom of the Opera (1998) is the third film she has made with her father, the others being Trauma (1993) (filmed in the US) and The Stendhal Syndrome (1996).
Asia's absorbed, intense style of acting was well-used in Giuseppe Piccioni's Condannato a nozze (1993). In 1993 she co-starred in Carlo Verdone's Perdiamoci di vista (1994) in which she played Arianna, a physically disabled girl--an intricate, difficult role that won her the David di Donatello for best actress (1993-1994). She also had a featured role in the international cast of Queen Margot (1994), directed by Patrice Chéreau. In 1995 she worked with Michel Piccoli in Peter Del Monte's Traveling Companion (1996), which again won her a David di Donatello and a Grolla d'oro.
In 1994 Asia turned her hand to directing and turned out two short films: "Prospettive" (an episode of the film DeGeneration (1994)) and "A ritroso". In 1996 she directed a documentary on her father and, in 1998, one on cult director Abel Ferrara, Abel/Asia (1998), which won an award at the Rome Film Festival. In 1999 Asia made her feature-directing debut with Scarlet Diva (2000), in which she was the leading actress and author of the screenplay. The film was released in May 2000 in Italy and the rest of the world. It won an award at the Williamsburg Film Festival in Brooklyn, New York. In 2001, after directing a number of music videos, she gave birth to her first daughter, Anna Lou. In 2002 she starred in The Red Siren (2002) by Olivier Megaton with Jean-Marc Barr and the action thriller xXx (2002), directed by Rob Cohen, with Vin Diesel.
Asia is also the author of a number of short stories published in many prestigious magazines such as "Dynamo," "L'Espresso," "Sette," and "Village," Her first novel, "I Love You, Kirk," was published in Italy by Frassinelli Editrice in October 1999 and in France by Florent Massot in 2001.the Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)- Producer
- Director
- Sound Department
Barbara Kopple was born on 30 July 1946 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a producer and director, known for Harlan County U.S.A. (1976), American Dream (1990) and Shut Up & Sing (2006).Havoc (2005)- Director
- Writer
- Animation Department
Clare Kilner is known for House of the Dragon (2022), The Mosquito Coast (2021) and Snowpiercer (2020). She has been married to Martin Foster since 29 August 2007. They have one child.How to Deal (2003)
The Wedding Date (2005)
EastEnders (TV Series)
The Middle (TV Series)
Krypton (TV Series)
Pennyworth (TV Series)
The Alienist-Angel of Darkness (2020) (TV Series) (Three episodes)
Snowpiercer (TV Series)
The Mosquito Coast (TV Series)
House of the Dragon (2022) (TV Series) (Three episodes)- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Rebecca Miller was born on 15 September 1962 in Roxbury, Connecticut, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Maggie's Plan (2015), Personal Velocity (2002) and Angela (1995). She has been married to Daniel Day-Lewis since 13 November 1996. They have two children.The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)- Additional Crew
- Director
- Actress
Anne Fletcher was born on 1 May 1966 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She is a director and actress, known for The Proposal (2009), Step Up (2006) and Hairspray (2007).Step Up (2006)
27 Dresses (2008)
The Proposal (2009)- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Julie Delpy was born in Paris, France, in 1969 to Albert Delpy and Marie Pillet, both actors.
She was first featured in Jean-Luc Godard's Detective (1985) at the age of fourteen. She has starred in many American and European productions since then, including Disney's The Three Musketeers (1993), Killing Zoe (1993), Three Colors: White (1994), and the "Before" series, alongside Ethan Hawke: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013).
She graduated from NYU's film school, and wrote and directed the short film Blah Blah Blah (1995), which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. She is a resident of Los Angeles.2 Days in Paris (2007)
The Countess (2009)- Director
- Actress
- Writer
Marjane Satrapi was born on 22 November 1969 in Rasht, Iran. She is a director and actress, known for Persepolis (2007), The Voices (2014) and Chicken with Plums (2011). She is married to Mattias Ripa. She was previously married to Reza.Persepolis (2007)- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Helen Hunt began studying acting at the age of eight with her father, respected director and acting coach Gordon Hunt. A year later she made her professional debut and afterwards worked steadily in films, theatre and television.Mad About You (1998-99)
Then She Found Me (2007)
Californication: At the Movies (2012)
Revenge: Retribution (2013)- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Susannah Grant was born on 4 January 1963 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Erin Brockovich (2000), Unbelievable (2019) and The 5th Wave (2016). She has been married to Christopher Henrikson since 1995. They have two children.Catch and Release (2006)- Director
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Phyllida Lloyd was born on 17 June 1957 in Bristol, England, UK. She is a director and producer, known for Mamma Mia! (2008), The Iron Lady (2011) and Herself (2020).Mamma Mia! (2008)
The Iron Lady (2011)
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)- Director
- Writer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Darnell Martin was born on 7 January 1964 in Bronx, New York, USA. She is a director and writer, known for I Like It Like That (1994), Cadillac Records (2008) and Do the Right Thing (1989). She is married to Giuseppe Ducrot.I Like It Like That (1994)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) (TV)
Cadillac Records (2008)- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Anne Fontaine was born on 15 July 1959 in Luxembourg. She is an actress and writer, known for The Innocents (2016), Coco Before Chanel (2009) and Reinventing Marvin (2017). She is married to Philippe Carcassonne. They have one child.Coco Before Chanel (2009)
Adore (2013)- Producer
- Writer
- Actress
New Yorker Lena Dunham is the daughter of a painter, Carroll Dunham and Laurie Simmons, a designer and photographer. Dunham was educated at Oberlin College, Ohio, graduating with a creative writing degree. It was while at Oberlin that she began writing shorts and feature films. In 2009, Dunham created the web series Delusional Downtown Divas (2009), which gained a cult following.
Also in 2009, Dunham released Creative Nonfiction (2009), her first feature film. She went on to write, direct and star in Tiny Furniture (2010), which scored two Independent Spirit Award nominations. In 2012, Dunham came to the attention of a wider audience with the HBO series Girls (2012) created by and starring Dunham and executive produced by Judd Apatow.Tiny Furniture (2010)- Writer
- Director
- Producer
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).Country Strong (2010)
Endless Love (2014)- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Angelina Jolie is an Academy Award-winning actress who rose to fame after her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999), playing the title role in the "Lara Croft" blockbuster movies, as well as Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Wanted (2008), Salt (2010) and Maleficent (2014). Off-screen, Jolie has become prominently involved in international charity projects, especially those involving refugees. She often appears on many "most beautiful women" lists, and she has a personal life that is avidly covered by the tabloid press.
Jolie was born Angelina Jolie Voight in Los Angeles, California. In her earliest years, Angelina began absorbing the acting craft from her actor parents, Jon Voight, an Oscar-winner, and Marcheline Bertrand, who had studied with Lee Strasberg. Her good looks may derive from her ancestry, which is German and Slovak on her father's side, and French-Canadian, Dutch, Polish, and remote Huron, on her mother's side. At age eleven, Angelina began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where she was seen in several stage productions. She undertook some film studies at New York University and later joined the renowned Met Theatre Group in Los Angeles. At age 16, she took up a career in modeling and appeared in some music videos.
In the mid-1990s, Jolie appeared in various small films where she got good notices, including Hackers (1995) and Foxfire (1996). Her critical acclaim increased when she played strong roles in the made-for-TV movies True Women (1997), and in George Wallace (1997) which won her a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination. Jolie's acclaim increased even further when she played the lead role in the HBO production Gia (1998). This was the true life story of supermodel Gia Carangi, a sensitive wild child who was both brazen and needy and who had a difficult time handling professional success and the deaths of people who were close to her. Carangi became involved with drugs and because of her needle-using habits she became, at the tender age of 26, one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS. Jolie's performance in Gia (1998) again garnered a Golden Globe Award and another Emmy nomination, and she additionally earned a SAG Award.
Angelina got a major break in 1999 when she won a leading role in the successful feature The Bone Collector (1999), starring alongside Denzel Washington. In that same year, Jolie gave a tour de force performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999) playing opposite Winona Ryder. The movie was a true story of women who spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Jolie's role was reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), the role which won Nicholson his first Oscar. Unlike "Cuckoo", "Girl" was a small film that received mixed reviews and barely made money at the box office. But when it came time to give out awards, Jolie won the triple crown -- "Girl" propelled her to win the Golden Globe Award, the SAG Award and the Academy Award for best leading actress in a supporting role.
With her newfound prominence, Jolie began to get in-depth attention from the press. Numerous aspects of her controversial personal life became news. At her wedding to her Hackers (1995) co-star Jonny Lee Miller, she had displayed her husband's name on the back of her shirt painted in her own blood. Jolie and Miller divorced, and in 2000, she married her Pushing Tin (1999) co-star Billy Bob Thornton. Jolie had become the fifth wife of a man twenty years her senior. During her marriage to Thornton, the spouses each wore a vial of the other's blood around their necks. That marriage came apart in 2002 and ended in divorce. In addition, Jolie was estranged from her famous father, Jon Voight.
In 2000, Jolie was asked to star in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). At first, she expressed disinterest, but then decided that the required training for the athletic role was intriguing. The eponymous character was drawn from a popular video game. Lara Croft was a female cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond. When the movie was released, critics were unimpressed with the final product, but critical acclaim wasn't the point of the movie. The public paid $275 million for theater tickets to see a buffed up Jolie portray the adventuresome Lara Croft. Jolie's father Jon Voight appeared in the movie, and during filming there was a brief rapprochement between father and daughter.
One of the Lara Croft movie's filming locations was Cambodia. While there, Jolie witnessed the natural beauty, culture and poverty of that country. She considered this an eye opening experience, and so began the humanitarian chapter of her life. Jolie began visiting refugee camps around the world and came to be formally appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some of her experiences were written and published in her popular book "Notes from My Travels" whose profits go to UNHCR.
Jolie has stated that she now plans to spend most of her time in humanitarian efforts, to be financed by her actress salary. She devotes one third of her income to savings, one third to living expenses and one third to charity. In 2002, Angelina adopted a Cambodian refugee boy named Maddox, and in 2005, adopted an Ethiopian refugee girl named Zahara. Jolie's dramatic feature film Beyond Borders (2003) parallels some of her real life humanitarian experiences although, despite the inclusion of a romance between two westerners, many of the movie's images were too depressingly realistic -- the movie was not popular among critics or at the box office.
In 2004, Jolie began filming Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) with co-star Brad Pitt. The movie became a major box office success. There were rumors that Pitt and Jolie had an affair while filming Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Jolie insisted that because her mother had been hurt by adultery, she herself could never participate in an affair with a married man, therefore there had been no affair with Pitt at that time. Nonetheless, Pitt separated from his wife Jennifer Aniston in January 2005 and, in the months that followed, he was frequently seen in public with Jolie, apparently as a couple. Pitt's divorce was finalized later in 2005.
Jolie and Pitt announced in early 2006 that they would have a child together, and Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh that May. They also adopted a three-year-old Vietnamese boy named Pax. The couple, who married in 2014 and divorced in 2019, continue to pursue movie and humanitarian projects, and now have a total of six children. She was appointed Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George at the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to United Kingdom foreign policy and the campaign to end warzone sexual violence.In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)- Art Department
- Animation Department
- Director
Jennifer Yuh Nelson was born on 7 May 1972 in South Korea. She is a director, known for Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), Love, Death & Robots (2019) and Spawn (1997).Spawn (Animated Series) (1997)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
The Darkest Mind (2018)- Director
- Actress
- Producer
Two time Emmy-nominated actress and director Lynn Shelton fell ill and was taken to a Los Angeles, California hospital. During her medical examination it was found that she had been suffering, without diagnosis or any apparent symptoms, from acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood. She died just a few days later on May 16, 2020 at age 54.Your Sister's Sister (2011)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Lana Wachowski and her sister Lilly Wachowski, also known as the Wachowskis, are the duo behind such ground-breaking movies as The Matrix (1999) and Cloud Atlas (2012). Born to mother Lynne, a nurse, and father Ron, a businessman of Polish descent, Wachowski grew up in Chicago and formed a tight creative relationship with her sister Lilly. After the siblings dropped out of college, they started a construction business and wrote screenplays. Their 1995 script, Assassins (1995), was made into a movie, leading to a Warner Bros contract. After that time, the Wachowskis devoted themselves to their movie careers. In 2012, during interviews for Cloud Atlas and in her acceptance speech for the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award, Lana spoke about her experience of being a transgender woman, sacrificing her much cherished anonymity out of a sense of responsibility. Lana is known to be extremely well-read, loves comic books and exploring ideas of imaginary worlds, and was inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in creating Cloud Atlas.Cloud Atlas (2012)- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Lorene Scafaria was born on 1 May 1978 in Holmdel, New Jersey, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Hustlers (2019), Coherence (2013) and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012).Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Joey Soloway was born on September 26, 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. They are a producer and writer, known for Transparent (2014), Six Feet Under (2001) and United States of Tara (2009). They were previously married to Bruce Gilbert, and for writing and directing the feature Afternoon Delight (2013) which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. They have also written two non-fiction books: Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants: Based on a True Story (2005) and She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy (2018).Afternoon Delight (2013)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Nicole Holofcener was born on 22 March 1960 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a director and writer, known for Enough Said (2013), Friends with Money (2006) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018). She was previously married to Benjamin Allanoff.Lovely & Amazing (2001)
Friends with Money (2006)
Enough Said (2013)- Producer
- Actress
- Director
Deborah Kaye Allen was born in Houston, Texas, to African-American parents, Vivian Elizabeth (Ayers), a poet and art director, and Andrew Arthur Allen, an orthodontist. As a child, Debbie, her older brother, Andrew (called Tex), and her older sister, actress Phylicia Rashad, lived in Mexico to escape US racism. Their mother decided to live there to give the Allen children a brief experience of not having to endure the chronic racism and segregation that was typical of Texas during the 1950s. Debbie and Phylicia are fluent in Spanish.
Debbie graduated from Jack Yates Senior High School in Houston, TX in 1967. She graduated cum laude from Howard University in 1971 with a BFA in Classical Greek Literature, Speech, and Theater from Howard University. She used her experiences from attending Historically Black College Howard to inform her production and direction of the TV show A Different World (1987).
Although her parents divorced, Debbie remained extremely close to her father until his death. With Phylicia she has production company "D.A.D." which stood for "Doctor Allen's Daughters". Her Pulitzer-nominated poet mother Vivian is, the artistic and free spirit that has influenced and encouraged the remarkable creativity that so marks Allen as a performer.Fame (TV Series) (1984-87)
Family Ties (1988-89)
Polly (1989) (TV)
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990)
Stompin' at the Savoy (1992) (TV)
A Different World (1988-93)
The Sinbad Show (1993-94)
The Jamie Foxx Show (1997-98)
The Twilight Zone: The Monsters Are on Maple Street (2003)
That's So Raven (2004-06)
Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story (2006) (TV)
All of Us (2003-07)
Girlfriends (2005-08)
Everybody Hates Chris (2006-09)
Hellcats (2010-2011)
The Client List (2013)
Grey's Anatomy (2010-2013)
Scandal (2014)
Witches of East End (2014)
Jane the Virgin (2014)- Director
- Producer
- Actress
Deborah Chow is known for The High Cost of Living (2010), Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) and The Mandalorian (2019).Flowers in the Attic (2014) (TV)
Beauty and the Beast (TV Series) (one episode)
Mr. Robot (TV Series) (one episode)
The Vampire Diaries (TV Series) (one episode)
Iron Fist (TV Series) (one episode)
Reign (2013) (TV Series)
Fear the Walking Dead (TV Series) (one episode)
Jessica Jones (2015) (TV Series) (one episode)
Lost in Space (TV Series) (one episode)
American Gods (2017) (TV Series) (one episode)
The Mandalorian (2019) (TV Series)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) (mini)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
After receiving a B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, Moncrieff moved to California to pursue a career as an actress. She appeared in numerous TV shows and B-movies and was a series regular on Santa Barbara (as Cassandra Lockridge) and Days of Our Lives (as Gabrielle Pascal.)
In 1998, Moncrieff completed the certificate program in film studies at Los Angeles City College and discovered her passion for writing and directing. The same year, she received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for Blue Car, which became her directorial debut.
Blue Car, starring David Strathairn and Agnes Bruckner, premiered at The 2002 Sundance Film Festival where it was acquired by Miramax Films. After screening at festivals around the world, including Toronto, Deauville, Montreal, and London Blue Car, opened to widespread critical acclaim. Soon after, Moncrieff was chosen as one of Variety's 10 Screenwriter's to Watch, and Blue Car went on to garner two Spirit Award nominations including Best First Screenplay.
Moncrieff's second feature, The Dead Girl, starring Toni Collette, Josh Brolin, Marcia Gay Harden, Brittany Murphy, Kerry Washington, Giovanni Ribisi, Rose Byrne, and Mary Beth Hurt, was nominated for three Spirit Awards including Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress. It premiered at the AFI film festival in 2006 and went on to win the Grand Prix at Deauville in 2007.
Moncrieff's television directing credits include Lifetime's highly rated MOW adaptation of V.C. Andrews beloved novel Petals on the Wind. She also directed The Trials of Cate McCall, (which she also wrote and produced) starring Kate Beckinsale, Nick Nolte, and James Cromwell, and episodes of the Emmy award winning HBO series Six Feet Under, and the short-lived series Touching Evil, starring Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Donovan.Six Feet Under: The Opening (2003)
The Dead Girl (2006)
Petals on the Wind (2014) (TV)- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
After this feisty, highly offbeat actress from Chattanooga, Tennessee, broke into TV in the 1980s, she immediately set herself apart from the norm with a prime role as new owner Bud Cort's female friend in the bizarre mini-movie Bates Motel (1987). This rather inauspicious beginning would also set Lori Petty off on a career as a kinetic fighter and a misfit, types for which she would be best known.
Lori was born on October 14, 1963, and spent her childhood traveling the US with her father, a Pentecostal minister. Her keen talents first lent themselves toward being a graphic artist in Omaha, Nebraska, but an impulsive desire to act quickly took precedence and soon she was off to New York, where she took acting classes and pounded the pavement for jobs.
Going nowhere fast, she eventually headed for Los Angeles and finally found an "in". Following a number of mediocre TV roles, she won a bit of attention on the short-lived series Booker (1989) as a lippy secretary, then hit pay dirt in secondary roles as an outrageous Cyndi Lauper wannabe in Cadillac Man (1990) and as Patrick Swayze's ex-girlfriend/waitress who hooks up with Keanu Reeves in Point Break (1991).
It looked like mainstream stardom might happen for the tomboy actress, especially after getting cast as Geena Davis' bratty baseball-playing sister in the highly successful A League of Their Own (1992). However, while Lori proved to be an intriguing, kooky sort, she also proved more difficult to cast. Such disparate roles as a kind-hearted animal trainer in Free Willy (1993) and the sole female recruit in Pauly Shore's inane comedy In the Army Now (1994) only proved the point.
She seemed bent towards playing scrappy, hard-edged figures alongside the big action guys but started off on the wrong foot when she was replaced by Sandra Bullock in Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man (1993) due to "artistic differences". She did play a lone female cop in the thriller The Glass Shield (1994), then found her true calling as the bizarre cartoon heroine Tank Girl (1995), which was billed as "a post-apocalyptic comedy." Playing along the same hard lines, Lori portrayed an FBI agent who teams up with a Tokyo policewoman Yûki Amami in the crime thriller Countdown (1996); played a butch lesbian in the social comedy Relax... It's Just Sex (1998); and an aggressive, tough-talking stripper at odds with the Mafia in the potboiler The Arrangement (1999). She ended the decade on TV as Max, a motel clerk, in the crime drama fantasy series Brimstone (1998).
Into the millennium, the crop-haired, tough-as-nails actress continued to take it to the limit. Following roles in the action films Firetrap (2001) and Route 666 (2001), Lori co-starred alongside the similarly tough-styled Gina Gershon in Prey for Rock & Roll (2003) as members of a punk rock band. She later starred in the creature vs. human horror opus Cryptid (2006); had a small part (First Murderer) in a contemporary Hollywood updating of Shakespeare's Richard III (2007); a deputy in the cross-country sports movie Chasing 3000 (2010); a doctor in the horror thriller Dead Awake (2016); a starring role as a lady Marine in Fear, Love, and Agoraphobia (2018); and a campy role in the low-budget horror flick A Deadly Legend (2020).
On TV, Lori would be seen as a guest in such shows as "The Beast," "NYPD Blue," "CSI: NY," "Masters of Horror," "House," "Prison Break," "Hawaii Five-0," and, more notably, in the recurring and amusing role of loony, paranoiac Lolly in the women's prison series Orange Is the New Black (2013). On the other side of the camera, the still-single Lori wrote and directed the film The Poker House (2008) starring Jennifer Lawrence, a re-dramatization of Lori's teenage years in Iowa. The film earned awards at the Los Angeles Film FestivalThe Poker House (2008)- Director
- Producer
- Editor
Holly Dale is one of Canada's premiere directors recognized globally for her outstanding, award-winning television and cinema work crafted over the past twenty-five years. Ms Dale has directed movies, entire mini series, pilots and episodic. She has worked in all genres.
Recently, Ms Dale was taped to be the Producer Director for showrunner Nick Santora's upcoming Netflix/Skydance series FUBAR starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Monica Barbaro and Fortune Feimster. The series will start streaming on Netflix in the Summer of 2023.
Previously Ms Dale was the Producer Director on the Warner Bros/Berlanti Productions series Batwoman for three seasons where she directed 13 episodes.
Ms Dale was also Producer Director of the international sensation Transplant. She block shot the pilot and first 3 episodes of Transplant, creating its stunning visual template. Transplant focuses on a Syrian trauma surgeon who himself is the transplant. The series holds the distinction of becoming the #1 drama series of the year in both its Canadian run and US network run on NBC.
Among many prestigious awards Ms Dale has earned is the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture and Best Director for the groundbreaking hard edged serial killer miniseries Durham County. She was also honoured with a Canadian Screen Award for Best Director for Mary Kills People, a limited series delving into the murky waters of euthanasia which she directed/co-executive produced the entire first season of six hours. Variety selected Mary Kills People as one of their top ten series of the year.
The Directors Guild of Canada has recognized Ms Dale as their Best Director of Drama series on four [4] separate occasions for her work on the acclaimed one hour shows Flashpoint, Durham County, Mary Kills People and most recently for Transplant.
Highlights of the many extraordinary series Holly has guest directed include Dexter, The Americans, Chris Carter's X-Files, Joan Allen's The Family, Dick Wolf's Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Law & Order:SVU, Halle Berry's Extant, Bradley Cooper's Limitless, Marvel's Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D, Steven Spielberg's Falling Skies as well as 12 individual hours of the Jerry Bruckheimer anthological series Cold Case, to name just a few.Blood & Donuts (1995)
Reign (2013) (TV Series; 6 episodes)
Heroes (TV Series)
Stargate: Atlantis (TV Series)
1-800-Missing (TV Series)
Kyle XY (TV Series)
The Dead Zone (TV Series)
Blood Ties (TV Series)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TV Series)
The Forgotten (TV Series)
Cold Case (TV Series)
Flashpoint (TV Series)
The Gates (TV Series)
Being Erica (TV Series)
Rizzoli & Isles (TV Series)
The Playboy Club (TV Series)
The Firm (TV Series)
Falling Skies (TV Series)
Grimm (TV Series)
The Americans (TV Series)
Smash (TV Series)
Dexter (TV Series)
Castle (TV Series)
Under the Dome (TV Series)
Extant (TV Series)
Agents of S.H.E.L.D. (TV Series)
Blue Blood (TV Series)
NCIS (TV Series)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)
The Whisperers (TV Series)
Mistresses (TV Series)
Limitless (TV Series)
Quantica (TV Series)
Bull (TV Series)
Chicago P.D. (TV Series)
Chicago Fire (TV Series)
Taken (TV Series)
S.W.A.T. (TV Series)
The X-Files (TV Series)
Timeless (TV Series)
Take Two (TV Series)
Seal Team (TV Series)- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).
Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an American-born artist (from Cincinnati, Ohio), who also acts as Natalie's agent. Her parents are both of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Natalie's family left Israel for Washington, D.C., when she was still very young. After a few more moves, her family finally settled in New York, where she still lives to this day. She graduated with honors, and her academic achievements allowed her to attend Harvard University. She was discovered by an agent in a pizza parlor at the age of 11. She was pushed towards a career in modeling but she decided that she would rather pursue a career in acting. She was featured in many live performances, but she made her powerful film debut in the movie Léon: The Professional (1994) (aka "Léon"). Following this role Natalie won roles in such films as Heat (1995), Beautiful Girls (1996), and Mars Attacks! (1996).
It was not until 1999 that Natalie received worldwide fame as Queen Amidala in the highly anticipated US$431 million-grossing prequel Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). She then she starred in two critically acclaimed comedy dramas, Anywhere But Here (1999) and Where the Heart Is (2000), followed by Closer (2004), for which she received an Oscar nomination. She reprised her role as Padme Amidala in the last two episodes of the Star Wars prequel trilogy: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). She received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Black Swan (2010).
She received a second nomination for Best Actress, for playing Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie (2016).New York, I Love You (2008)- Director
- Producer
- Editor
Joyce Chopra was born on 27 October 1936. She is a director and producer, known for The Lemon Sisters (1989), Smooth Talk (1985) and Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front (2006). She was previously married to Tom Cole.Smooth Talk (1985)
The Lemon Sisters (1989)
Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story (1991) (TV)
Murder in a Small Town (1999) (TV)
The Lady in Question (1999) (TV)
Rip Girls (2000) (TV)
Blonde (2001) (mini-series)
Hollywood Wives: The Next Generation (2003) (TV)
An American Girl on the Home Front (2006) (TV)- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Janice Karman was born on 21 May 1954 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Alvin & the Chipmunks (1983), The Chipmunk Adventure (1987) and Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007). She has been married to Ross Bagdasarian Jr. since 27 September 1980. They have two children.The Chipmunk Adventure (1987)- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Jennifer Jason Leigh was born Jennifer Lee Morrow in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of writer Barbara Turner and actor Vic Morrow. Her father was of Russian Jewish descent and her mother was of Austrian Jewish ancestry. She is the sister of Carrie Ann Morrow and half-sister of actress Mina Badie.
Jennifer's parents divorced when she was two. Jennifer worked in her first film at the age of nine, in a nonspeaking role for the film Death of a Stranger (1973). At 14 she attended summer acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg and later landed a role in the Disney TV movie The Young Runaways (1978). She received her Screen Actors Guild membership for an episode of the TV series Baretta (1975) when she was 16. Jennifer performed in several TV movies and dropped out of Pacific Palisades High School six weeks short of graduation for her major role in the film Eyes of a Stranger (1981). Her first major success came as the female lead in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
Jennifer was married to writer/director Noah Baumbach from 2005 to 2013, and the two have a son.The Anniversary Party (2001)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Thirty-one years ago, filmmaker Julie Dash broke racial and gender boundaries with her Sundance award-winning film (Best Cinematography) Daughters of the Dust. She became the first African American woman to have a wide theatrical release of her feature film. The Library of Congress placed Daughters of the Dust and her UCLA MFA senior thesis Illusions in the National Film Registry. These two films join a select group of American films preserved and protected as national treasures by the Librarian of Congress. Dash recently designed two rooms for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and VOGUE, In American: An Anthology of Fashion, featured at the NYC Met Gala 2022.Daughters of the Dust (1991)
Funny Valentines (1999)
The Rosa Parks Story (2002) (TV)