Faculty
An award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles, Karen Moncrieff’s directorial credits include episodes of the Netflix series 13 REASONS WHY and the iconic Emmy-winning show SIX FEET UNDER. While still in the midst of a successful acting career, Moncrieff transitioned to writing and directing upon winning the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for her coming-of-age drama BLUE CAR, which became her directorial debut. BLUE CAR, starring David Strathairn and Agnes Bruckner, premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival where it was acquired by Miramax Films. Screening at major festivals around the world, BLUE CAR opened to widespread critical acclaim and garnered two Independent Spirit Award nominations, including Best Screenplay. Soon after, Moncrieff was chosen as one of Variety’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch.” Moncrieff’s second feature, THE DEAD GIRL, starring Toni Collette, Josh Brolin, Marcia Gay Harden, Brittany Murphy, Kerry Washington, Giovanni Ribisi, and Rose Byrne, was nominated for three Spirit Awards including Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress. It premiered at the AFI film festival in 2006 and went on to win the Grand Prix at Deauville in 2007. Other directing credits include THE KEEPING HOURS starring Lee Pace and Carrie Coon, for Blumhouse, THE TRIALS OF CATE MCCALL starring Kate Beckinsale, Nick Nolte, and James Cromwell, ESCAPING THE MADHOUSE: THE NELLIE BLY STORY starring Christina Ricci and Judith Light, and Lifetime’s highly rated movie adaptation of V.C. Andrews beloved novel PETALS ON THE WIND with Heather Graham and Ellen Burstyn. Moncrieff is currently writing an eight-episode limited series based on Ann Fessler’s oral history of the baby scoop era, THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY.
Moncrieff earned her degree in Performance Studies at Northwestern University, then continued her acting training in New York with Bill Adler, and in Los Angeles at Playhouse West with Robert Carnegie.
Photo Credit: Justin M. Lubin
The Keeping Hours clip | 2017 LA Film Festival
Production Stills from “13 Reasons Why”
