BIO
Award-winning filmmaker and scientist, Valerie Weiss, has directed three feature films and twenty episodes of television. Valerie’s was recently selected as the winner of the inaugural Fox Filmmaking Lab (formerly called the Fox Bridge Program)- an initiative to find the next female director to helm a feature franchise after pitching an all-female version of the Maze Runner called True Maze. In television, Valerie’s work has spanned both streaming and network arenas. She has directed shows like Outer Banks (Netflix), Why Women Kill (CBS All Access), Maryellen: An American Girl Special (Amazon), multiple episodes for Dick Wolf Productions (NBC), Shondaland (ABC), and just finished directing the mid-season finale of Berlanti’s Prodigal Son (Fox). Her work has been called "daringly light" for the way it embraces controversial topics in an enchanting way and spans the genres of action, thriller, drama, sci-fi and comedy. RogerEbert.com calls her second feature, A Light Beneath Their Feet, “Emotionally raw and uncommonly observant...By turns endearing, unsettling, and ultimately moving, [it] is a triumph of empathetic filmmaking." Valerie’s third feature, The Archer, premiered at SXSW in 207 is a feminist coming-of-age action film best described as Thelma and Louise meets First Blood. Holding a Ph.D. in X-ray Crystallography from Harvard University has uniquely enabled Valerie to transform abstract material into compelling visual stories. Additionally, Valerie has a tremendous gift for eliciting moving and authentic performances, likely stemming from her curious point-of-view as a scientist and examines all human behavior without judgement or prejudice. Valerie is a member of the Directors Guild of America, an alumnus of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) Program, a participant in the WeForShe DirectHer Program, the DGA Director Development Initiative, and she is the winner of the inaugural Fox Filmmaking Lab. She is repped by Ann Blanchard, Olivia Blaustein, and Darian Lanzetta at CAA, John Bauman Management and Wendy Kirk at Ziffren Brittenham LLP. Valerie lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two daughters and hopefully soon a goldendoodle.