Alison Klayman

Alison Klayman is an award-winning filmmaker known for documenting some of the most prominent people and stories of our time, through a singularly intimate lens. She has profiled the eponymous Chinese artist and activist in Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, which earned a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and put Alison on the New York Times’ list of 20 Directors to Watch; singer Alanis Morrisette in Jagged; and right wing strategist Steve Bannon in The Brink. She has also chronicled the rise and fall (and rise again) of iconic brand Abercrombie & Fitch in White Hot; the pervasiveness of prescription stimulants in Take Your Pills; and the WNBA’s New York Liberty in Unfinished Business. 

Alison brings the same effortlessly personal approach, powerful visual style, and genuinely emotional story beats to her advertising work. She has directed commercials for numerous major brands including lululemon, HP, HBO, Bose, Brawny, 3M, and MorningStar Farms. She’s currently in post-production on a branded short film chronicling MilkPEP’s first-ever, all-women marathon, which will debut in 2025.

Based in Brooklyn, Alison is represented by Institute for her work in advertising. She is also a member of the DGA, BAFTA, and AMPAS. Her films have been shortlisted for an Academy Award and have received multiple prizes including from the Sundance Film Festival, the Peabody Awards, and the duPont-Columbia Awards.