User:Ernadoherty21/User Marta Cunningham sandbox

Marta Cunningham Born: April 19th, 1971 in San Mateo, California School: Georgetown University Birth name: Marta Mary Cunningham Occupation: Film Director, Producer

Marta was born in Northern California (April 19th, 1971) and attended San Mateo High School Performing Arts. Marta Cunningham is a native of Northern California and an accomplished actor turned director. She began her professional career at the age of 14, dancing with the company at The Peninsula Ballet Theater. She was awarded the prestigious Baker Scholarship and went on to study English literature at Georgetown University. Since relocating to Los Angeles her career has expanded into all areas of performance. She worked as an actress, writer, dancer and choreographer, before exclusively focusing on directing, writing, and producing.

In 2008, Marta was so moved by the story of 15 year-old Lawrence King's murder that she became embedded in his hometown of Oxnard California and began filming the people whose lives were touched by the tragedy. Five years later the result would be VALENTINE ROAD, her first feature length documentary.

In the Fall of 2012, HBO bought a rough cut of VALENTINE ROAD and in January 2013 it premiered at Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Competition. It premiered on HBO in October of 2013. The film was a critical success and was nominated for two News and Documentary Emmy Awards.

​Since 2014, Marta has joined the Sundance Institute's Film Forward program, and has participated both in the Sundance Institute's Women Filmmakers Initiative, and the Sundance FilmTwo Initiative. She was also a part of the Warner Brothers Television Directors’ Workshop, and was one of only twenty women selected for the inaugural Fox Global Initiative Director’s Lab.

Marta has worked extensively in premium cable and streaming episodic—directing two episodes spreading over two season’s of Amazon’s TRANSPARENT, alongside episodes of HBO’s series INSECURE, and The Duplass Brothers’ ROOM 104. She has also directed episodes of HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, GROWNISH and THE BOLD TYPE. Her season three finale episode of TRANSPARENT was nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series at “The 48th NAACP Image Awards.”

Marta is currently working on CBS All Access’ STAR TREK DISCOVERY Season 2. Her production company, Sugar Sky Pictures, is currently in pre-production on several television series, films and documentaries.

Awards/Nominations:

Nominated for two News and Documentary Emmy Awards (Valentine Road) Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series at “The 48th NAACP Image Awards.” (Transparent)

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