Catherine Hardwicke

Catherine Hardwicke is an accomplished director known for eliciting realistic performances and crafting empathetic, complex stories. Following many years as a successful production designer on films directed by Richard Linklater, David O. Russell, Cameron Crowe, and Lisa Cholodenko, Catherine’s first project as a director was 2003’s critically-acclaimed film Thirteen, for which she received the Director’s Award at the Sundance Film Festival. She later went on to direct the 2008 blockbuster Twilight, which remains one of the top-grossing films of all time from a female director, and launched the worldwide blockbuster franchise The Twilight Saga.

Catherine’s other film credits as a director include classic skateboarding film Lords of Dogtown starring Heath Ledger and Emile Hirsch, Miss You Already starring Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette, and most recently Miss Bala starring Gina Rodriguez. She has also directed numerous episodes of television, including the hit series This Is Us and the episode “The Dreams in the Witch House” for Netflix’s new series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Additionally, Catherine directed the powerful music video for “Til It Happens to You,” the Academy Award-nominated original song written by Lady Gaga and Diane Warren for documentary The Hunting Ground.