Valerie Heather Weiss is an American filmmaker and producer.

Early life

Valerie Weiss is a filmmaker and scientist. She grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended Princeton University, where she majored in molecular biology. She got a Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology and a master's degree in medical sciences from Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard, she founded and was the filmmaker-in-residence and festival director of the Dudley House Film Program, the organization's film program for graduate students from 1999 to 2003.^[1] Later she was accepted to the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women, where she made a sci-fi social satire film called Transgressions.^[1]

PhD Productions

In 2004 Weiss founded PhD Productions, a film company, with her husband Robert Johnson.^[2]

Personal life

Valerie met her future husband Robert Johnson at Princeton as cast members in the production of Cyrano de Bergerac.^[3]

Critical response

Weiss directed the "Ad Astra Per Aspera" episode in Season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.^[4]

Before directing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Weiss directed episodes of the first three seasons of Outer Banks (TV series) and her fourth feature film, Mixtape, for Netflix.^[5] Mixtape, starring Julie Bowen, Gemma Allen, and Nick Thune received a 100% Fresh score from Rotten Tomatoes as well as being listed as one of the top family films of 2021 by the Washington Post and Common Sense Media.^[6]

Weiss has directed Mixtape, a family dramedy about grief, and her third feature, The Archer, a feminist action film about the Kids for Cash scandal in the private prison system. The Archer premiered at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival.^[7]

Of Weiss's second feature, A Light Beneath Their Feet, critic John Anderson says in his Thompson on Hollywood Indiewire review, "Not only does director Valerie Weiss's latest effort straddle several genres simultaneously—among them, the coming-of-age drama and the social critique—it also features a pair of break-out performances: Madison Davenport, who plays high-schooler Beth Gerringson; and Taryn Manning ("Orange Is the New Black"), who plays Beth's mother, Gloria ... Manning, under Weiss's direction, puts a spin on Gloria that distinguishes her from similarly unstable characters."^[8]

A Light Beneath Their Feet also received a review from The Hollywood Reporter, calling it, "A sensitive and moving depiction of a family dealing with mental illness." "Featuring standout performances by Taryn Manning as a woman with bipolar disorder and Madison Davenport as her teenage daughter grappling with whether to take flight, A Light Beneath Their Feet will strike particular chords among the many who have had similar personal experiences."^[9]

Matt Fagerholm of RogerEbert.com called A Light Beneath Their Feet a "triumph of empathetic filmmaking" and said, "Regardless of the genre she happens to be tackling, Valerie Weiss is remarkably gifted at portraying the complexity of human relationships."^[10]

Filmography

Director

Producer

Writer

Actress

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