Brit Marling

Brit Marling studied theater in high school, but it was not until her college years when her filmmaking career began. While majoring in economics and studio art at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Marling wrote and acted in various student films. She took a break from college to shoot the documentary "Boxers and Ballerinas" with her friend and fellow filmmaker Mike Cahill in 2004. Shot over a two-year period, the film followed a quartet of young athletes - a boxer and a ballerina living in Havana, Cuba, and a boxer and a ballerina exiled in Miami, FL - trying to achieve their life goals in the midst of the U.S.-Cuban Communist conflict. Variety described the documentary as a "confident feature debut" for Marling and Cahill. The following year, she graduated valedictorian from Georgetown and landed a job as an investment-banking analyst at Goldman Sachs. Marling discovered her heart was not in finance and decided to pursue filmmaking full time.In 2011, Marling produced, wrote, and starred in her first feature-length, narrative film titled "Another Earth." She played Rhoda Williams, a MIT-bound astrophysicist who witnesses the strange appearance of an Earth-like planet in the sky while driving and accidentally slams her vehicle into another. The accident kills the family of the other car's driver (William Mapother) who, after some time passes, forms an unlikely romance with Marling. Directed by her longtime collaborator Cahill, "Another Earth" drew raves from critics when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize - awarded to an outstanding film with science, technology or math as a major theme. Even more impressive was the fact that Marling had a second film featured at Sundance, which she also produced, co-wrote and acted in. "The Sound of My Voice" followed a Los Angeles couple who infiltrate a cult led by an ethereal beauty (Marling) who claims to have time-traveled from the year 2054. Reportedly filmed for less than $500,000, "The Sound of My Voice" resonated with viewers for its engaging plot and cliffhanger ending. It went on to garner her an Indie Spirit nomination for Best Supporting Actress. That same year, Marling made her television-acting debut with a guest appearance on the comedy series "Community" (NBC, 2009-14; Yahoo!, 2015).