Catherine Hardwicke // Writer and Director

Hardwicke’s first film as a director was the critically-acclaimed coming-of-age drama Thirteen, which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, who was 13 yrs old at the time. It won numerous awards in global film festivals, including the Director’s Award at Sundance, Golden Globe nominations for Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood, an Indie Spirit Award for Nikki Reed (actress and co-writer), and an Academy Award nomination for Hunter. 

Hardwicke has since then become best known as the director of Twilight, which turbo-charged the careers of Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson (they met in a casting session at her house). Twilight launched the blockbuster $3.3 billion franchise and landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records for the female director with the biggest box office opening weekend.  Twilight had a best-selling soundtrack album and her book, “The Twilight Director’s Notebook,” was an international best seller, translated into 20 languages.

Hardwicke’s other credits include: Lords of Dogtown (Heath Ledger, Emile Hirsch), Miss You Already (Drew Barrymore, Toni Collette), Red Riding Hood (Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman), Miss Bala (Gina Rodriguez), and The Nativity Story (Oscar Isaac’s first film). More recently she filmed in Rome for Mafia Mamma (Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci), and in Las Vegas – the gritty family drama Prisoner’s Daughter (Kate Beckinsale, Brian Cox), which premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival.   She recently wrapped an indie film Street Smart, about a lively group of young creatives struggling to survive on the streets in Venice Beach.  It’s been described as a “Homeless Breakfast Club.”

For television, she has directed episodes of This Is Us, Eye Witness, Low Winter Sun, Hell on Wheels, Reckless and the 14-part Quibi series Don’t Look Deeper (Don Cheadle, Emily Mortimer).  She directed on the acclaimed Hulu series, Under the Bridge, starring Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone.  Hardwicke directed the stand-alone episode of Dreams in the Witchhouse (Rupert Grint) for Guillermo del Toro’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” on Netflix. 

Hardwicke previously worked as the Production Designer on films including Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise) , Three Kings (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg) , Tank Girl (Lori Petty, Malcolm McDowell) and the classic western Tombstone (Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer). She holds an Architecture degree from UT Austin and did graduate work in animation at UCLA Film School.