Lucia Aniello

Lucia Aniello (born 1983) is an Italian-born American director, writer, and producer best known for her work on Hacks, for which she won multiple Emmy Awards, and Broad City. She has directed and written episodes of both shows, as well as the miniseries Time Traveling Bong and the 2017 film Rough Night.

Early life
Aniello was born in Italy and grew up in Hadley, Massachusetts, where her parents owned Italian restaurants, before moving to New York City. In 2004, she graduated from Columbia University, where she was a film and media studies major and studied with film critic Andrew Sarris. She was in Sigma Delta Tau sorority. She also played varsity tennis for Columbia.

Career
Aniello is an alumna of the Upright Citizens Brigade, an improvisational and sketch comedy group founded in 1990 by a group of comedians including Amy Poehler who is an executive producer of Broad City.

Aniello and Paul W. Downs met at a Upright Citizens Brigade Level One improvisational comedy class. Aniello and Downs began working together on a series of digital shorts and improv. They started their own website and comedy production company called Paulilu Productions. Together they have been writing, directing and acting in digital shorts since 2007. Some of their most well-known web series include The Diary of Zac Efron and The Real Housewives of South Boston.

Work on Broad City
Aniello also met Ilana Glazer of Broad City through the same Upright Citizens Brigade class where she met Downs. As Aniello and Downs began to make digital shorts and build the foundations of Paulilu, Glazer and Abbi Jacobson worked on the prototype of Broad City. The two comedic duos occasionally acted in each other's shorts or directed them. When Broad City moved to television Glazer and Jacobson asked Aniello to direct the pilot and cast Downs as Trey, the trainer and boss of Jacobson's character on the show. After the show was picked up by Comedy Central, they asked both Aniello and Downs to join the group of writers for the show.

Current work
Aniello also co-created Time Traveling Bong. Her interest in the subject began in college when she wrote a thesis on time-travel movies at Columbia University. The movie is a stoner film comedy about two cousins who acquire a bong that acts as a time traveling device.

Aniello directed and, with Downs, co-wrote the comedy Rough Night, which was released in June 2017. It stars Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Kravitz, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, Demi Moore, Ty Burrell and Colton Haynes. During the time of the film's release, Aniello was the first woman to direct an R-rated comedy in nearly 20 years.

In 2020, she directed and executive produced the Comedy Central series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens as well as Netflix's Baby-Sitters Club.

Aniello is showrunning and directing the HBO Max show Hacks, starring Jean Smart. The first season of Hacks garnered 15 Emmy nominations and 3 wins, including “Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series,” “Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series,” and Jean Smart won “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.” The series won two Writers Guild of America Awards in the categories of “Comedy Series” and “New Series,” and Aniello won a Directors Guild of America Award in the category of “Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series.” The series also took home two Golden Globe Awards for “Best Musical or Comedy TV Series” and “Best Television Actress in a Musical or Comedy”. Hacks was honored as one of the “Outstanding Television Programs of the Year” at the American Film Institute Awards and won a 2022 Peabody Award. Season 1 of Hacks also received various award nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Choice Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards, and the Gotham Awards, among others.

In its second season, Hacks received 17 Emmy nominations and 3 wins, including “Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series,” “Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series” and “Outstanding Contemporary Costumes.” The series won a Writers Guild of America Award in the "Episodic Comedy" category, and was honored as one of the “Outstanding Television Programs of the Year” at the American Film Institute Awards for its second consecutive year. Jean Smart also won a Critics Choice Award for “Best Actress in a Comedy Series” for her second consecutive year. The series was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, two Writers Guild of America Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Producers Guild of America Award, among numerous others.

More recently, Aniello and Paul W. Downs signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television.

Personal life
Aniello resides in Los Angeles with her husband and comedic partner Paul W. Downs, with whom she co-wrote Rough Night. They have a son, born in 2022.