Greta Gerwig

Greta Gerwig wanted to be a playwright. When playwriting MFA programmes turned her down, she switched to acting. While still a student at Barnard College in New York, she started appearing in tiny independent films in 2006, part of the scene later labelled “mumblecore”. She paid the rent as a nanny and an SAT tutor.

Working with Noah Baumbach changed things. The two co-wrote Frances Ha, in which she plays the title role, and it earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

In 2017 she directed her first solo feature, Lady Bird, which she has called a love letter to her hometown of Sacramento. Saoirse Ronan plays the lead, and went on to star in Gerwig’s Little Women (2019). Both films deal with girlhood, artistic ambition and mothers and daughters. Lady Bird brought Gerwig an Oscar nomination for Best Director.

Then came Barbie (2023), co-written with Baumbach. It passed a billion dollars worldwide, the first film with a woman as sole director to do so. In 2023 Netflix hired her to write and direct two films based on The Chronicles of Narnia.

Start with Lady Bird, then rewatch Barbie with her shoestring beginnings in mind.