50 Lesbian & Bisexual Directors Hollywood Should Be Hiring
Recently Vulture listed 100 Women Directors Hollywood Should Be Hiring and about one tenth of them were LGBT-identified. It was a similar amount featured in The Women Of Hollywood Speak Out from this weekend’s issue of The New York Times. And while we’re thrilled to see some of the heavy hitters included in both pieces, there are still many lesbian and bisexual filmmakers and directors that have the kind of talent and perspective the industry desperately needs.
Here are our suggestions, Hollywood, on the 50 lesbian and bisexual directors you should be hiring for your projects, as well as putting your money behind them for their own.
Lisa CholdenkoPhoto by Allen Berezovsky/WireImage
The Oscar-nominated filmmaker wrote and directed High Art, Laurel Canyon, The Kids Are All Right. She also won an Emmy for her direction of HBO’s Olive Kitteridge mini-series last year.
Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/FilmMagic
Jamie started working on film with But I’m a Cheerleader, The Quiet and Itty Bitty Titty Committee, but has since found herself working in television on shows like Girls, Looking, Married and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. This year she released her film Addicted to Fresno, written by wife Karey Dornetto.
Photo by Beck Starr/Getty Images
Making her directing debut with Go Fish in 1994, Rose went on to direct two other features and several episodes of The L Word, among other things. Next up: an ITVS series called Sugar.
Kimberly’s Boys Don’t Cry was a critical sensation in 1999, winning several awards including the Best Actress Oscar for star Hilary Swank. Since then, Kim has directed two other features (Stop Loss and Carrie) and has made the transition to television with Turn, Halt and Catch Fire, and Manhattan.
Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImage
Cheryl’s writing and directing work includes The Watermelon Woman, Stranger Inside, The Owls and Mommy is Coming. Her work tackles issues surrounding race, sexuality, aging and incarceration. She often stars in her films as well.
The Canadian filmmaker is behind I’ve Heard the Mermaid Singing and When Night is Falling, but made a foray into mainstream film with Mansfield Park in 1999. Her new film, Into the Forest, stars Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood as sisters.
Cherien, a former staff writer on The L Word, has directed two features: Amreeka and May in the Summer. She’s currently a writer on the hit series Quantico.
Dee’s directorial debut Pariah was a Sundance success and she went on to direct the award-winning HBO film Bessie in 2015 as well as an episode of Empire.
Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images
Stacee’s 2013 film, Concussion, was well-received and she directed an episode of Transparent’s upcoming second season. Her next feature, Strange Things Started Happening, is in the works with support from the Sundance and Tribeca Film Institutes.
Photo by Steve Sands/GC Images
The long-time actress has transitioned nicely into directing with three features and two more in the works. She’s also directed episodes of Orange is the New Black and House of Cards.
A screenwriter since 1986, Jane’s directorial work includes If These Walls Could Talk 2, Normal and The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. She won an Emmy for her adaptation of Olive Kitteridge this year.
Su Friedrich
photo by David Gorlis via SuFriedrich.com
Su has been making experimental films and documentaries since 1978 including The Ties That Bind (1984) and Hide and Seek (1996). Her work is often featured in art exhibitions and galleries, where they are just at much home there as they are in theaters or small screens.
Best known for the pivotal lesbian film Desert Hearts, Donna has had a long career in directing for TV shows such as Murder One, NYPD Blue and Law & Order: SVU.
Photo by Tibrina Hobson/FilmMagic
After the success of D.E.B.S., Angela directed several episodes of The L Word before working on Gigantic, Charlie’s Angels and True Blood, where she was also a writer.
via FacebookThe writer/director/actor has four features, including her 2007 debut Butch Jamie and most recent S&M Sally.
The trans director not only gave us Bound and The Matrix trilogy, but she also created Sense8 with brother Andy. She has a proven track record of writing and directing bad ass work with strong women at the center.
Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage/Getty
The Cuban filmmaker’s resume includes a documentary about the Dinah (A Lez in Wonderland), a behind-the-scenes look (and companion piece to) Cheryl Dunye’s The Owls called Hooters, and the 2013 feature Who’s Afraid of Vagina Woolf? Her spoof Vagina is the Warmest Color is not to be missed.
Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage/Getty
Not only did she star on Married with Children, but Amanda went behind the camera for several episodes of the show, and many others. She’s directed for Dharma & Greg, Reba, MadTV and The Big Gay Sketch Show.
via Getty
After directing her hilariously sardonic web series The Slope, Desiree wrote, directed and starred in Appropriate Behavior, loosely based on her life as a Persian-American bisexual woman going through a tough break-up. She’s currently developing a TV series with a bisexual protagonist.
Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Deadline Hollywood
Shamim adapted her life story into a novel first in 2007, which later became the feature The World Unseen. The next year, the semi-autobiographical I Can’t Even Think Straight brought even more of herself to the big screen. Her next film, Despite the Falling Snow, stars Rebecca Ferguson in Cold War Moscow.
Photo by Desiree Navarro/WireImage/Getty
Coley’s 2012 offering Sassy Pants starred Breaking Bad’s Anna Gunn and Ashley Rickards (of Awkward fame), and her next film, Dodie & Cheryl Get Hitched, follows “two small town lesbians who decide to get married and the ugly swell of hypocrisy with which they have to contend.”
Jessica Sharzer
Photo by J. Vespa/WireImage
Another woman who put her stamp on an episode of The L Word, Jessica also adapted the novel Speak into a film that received rave reviews at Sundance and beyond. She’s returned to television to work on Ryan Murphy‘s American Horror Story franchise.
Photo by Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic
After years of directing reality TV shows like The Real World and The Osbournes, Katherine tried her hand at filmmaking with Loving Annabelle, Waking Madison and the documentary Face 2 Face. Next up: Confidential, starring Jill Hennessy.
Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images
After directing Emily Deschanel and Kathleen Turner in The Perfect Family, Anne directed three episodes of Fox’s Bones in 2014 and 2015.
Léa Pool
via Vimeo
Lost and Delirious is only one of 18 films this out filmmaker has directed in her almost 40 year career. Her most recent work, La passion d’Augustine, is set in a Quebec convent.
Anne Wheeler
Photo by Vince Talotta/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Besides her 1999 work Better Than Chocolate, Anne has directed episodes of Bomb Girls and several other Canadian TV shows as well as features and made-for-TV movies.
Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images For TFF
The Chinese-American filmmaker has only directed Saving Face, but that’s exactly why we want to see her back in action.
Alexandra-Therese KeiningPhoto by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for AFI
The writer/director behind the well-received Kyss Migg released a second film, Girls Lost, this year. Next: an adaptation of her own novel, 14.
Céline SciammaPhoto by Foc Kan/WireImage
The award-winning French filmmaker (Water Lilies, Tomboy, Girlhood) has two new screenplays in the works: Ma vie de courgette and Quand on a 17 ans.
Photo by Francois Durand/Getty ImagesAlthough she’s done more producing of late, queer women are undeniably fans of her directing work on The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Girls in Love and Puccini for Beginners.
Maryam Keshavarz
Photo by Jonathan Leibson/WireImageCircumstance won Maryam several audience awards and Best Director at the Noor Iranian Film Festival. Not too bad for her first feature.
Aurora Guerrero
Photo by Frazer Harrison/WireImageThe Chicana filmmaker premiered Mosquita y Mari at Sundance in 2012, picking up several other awards at film festivals later that same year. Her next project, Los Valientes follows “a young undocumented gay Latino man living in the U.S.”
Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty ImagesThe television writer-turned-creator usually spends her time in the writers’ room, but she took a turn directing an episode of Don’t Trust the B In Apartment 23 in 2013. Hopefully she’ll follow suit on her current show, Fresh Off the Boat.
via OGLFFFrom 2002’s Do I Love You? to Tick Tock Lullaby, we’ve become accustomed to see Lisa star in her own work. That won’t change in her upcoming film The Book of Gabrielle, as Lisa plays the central character.
Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty ImagesWhile most of her work has been experimental and relatively short, Barbara’s most recent documentary, Welcome to this House: A Film About Elizabeth Bishop, signaled that the filmmaker can excel at all kinds of storytelling behind the camera.
Greta Schiller
via Jezebel Productions/em>The woman behind Before Stonewall also directed Paris Was a Woman, which delved into the pre-World War II time when lesbian and bisexual writers and artists flocked to France for freedom and abundance. Her 2010 documentary No Dinosaurs in Heaven took on creationism and religion being taught in public schools.
Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images for SundanceThe celebrated director of Paris is Burning is working on a new film, Earth Camp One, which is partially being funded by Netflix.
Photo by Grant Lamos IV/Getty ImagesNatalia transitioned from web content to a full-length feature with 2015’s Bare, starring Dianna Agron and Paz de la Huerta. This year, she also shot the second season of Be Here Now-ish and the documentary Serrano Shoots Cuba.
Mary Guzmán
Mary followed up her 2000 feature Desi’s Looking for a New Girl with a handful of shorts up through 2011, and we’re patiently awaiting the Cuban filmmaker’s next project.
Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty ImagesThe Venezuelan filmmaker has six films under her belt, including Woman on Top (2000) and the more recent Liz in September, starring out actress Patricia Velasquez.
via IMDBThe Australian director showed great range when she went from the documentary To Russia with Love to the lesbian road trip film All About E. More please!
Photo by snapshot-photography/ullstein bild via Getty ImagesThe German filmmaker has made 29 films in her lengthy career, moving easily between documentary and fiction-based features. Her best work includes Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting and 2014’s Of Girls and Horses.
Sara St. Martin Lynne
via TwitterAfter her 2009 debut Night Fliers, Sara directed a segment of Valencia: The Movie, a multi-director adaptation of Michelle Tea‘s queer novel set in 1990s San Francisco.
Campbell’s 2012 film Stud Life was a much-needed look at a stud-femme relationship. While often consulted on queer women of color on film, we want to see more of Campbell’s creations on screen.
Kanchi Wichmann
via Peccadillo Pics2011’s Break My Fall, which followed a young lesbian couple in East London, was released on Peccadillo Pictures and distributed in 21 territories worldwide. Kanchi is now working on her second feature.
Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty ImagesAfter years of acting and directing shorts, Jane put out the horror film Meth Head, followed by Crazy Bitches, a dark queer comedy starring Guinevere Turner and Candis Cayne.
Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImageBest known for the 1999 lesbian-themed indie Chutney Popcorn, Nisha has since directed episodes of Transparent, Mr. Robot, The Mindy Project, Married and Red Oaks. Next up, her own series on ABC.
Phyllida Lloyd
Phyllida got her start as a theater director in some of Great Britain’s most well-respected venues and companies. Her two features, Mama Mia and The Iron Lady, just happen to star Meryl Streep.
Allison Anders
Photo by Frazer Harrison/BAFTA LA/Getty Images for BAFTA LAThe out director has worked on episodes from some of our favorite shows including Orange is the New Black, The L Word and Sex and the City. Her films include 1996’s Grace of My Heart, which had Bridget Fonda in a lesbian storyline.
via GettyMe and You and Everyone We Know was a Sundance darling, and 2011’s The Future expanded on Miranda’s eccentricities. An artistic Renaissance woman, Miranda would bring an out-of-the-box point of view to any oeuvre.