About
“‘For all the Hollywood obsession with high-concept and special effects, sometimes there’s something enchanting about a simple story simply told, and a movie of small rather than grand gestures. Case in point: the pleasant and enchanting Brightest Star, a narratively slight but well acted and keenly observed romantic dramedy about a twentysomething guy’s romantic fumblings and occupational uncertainty. The feature film debut of Maggie Kiley, Brightest Star isn’t a movie of conventionally structured catharsis.’”
Maggie Kiley, who began her career as an actress at off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company and in films for James Gray and Andrew Jarecki, came up as an emerging director via American Film Institute’s prestigious Directing Workshop for Women. Her award winning short Some Boys Don’t Leave, starred Jesse Eisenberg and played over 50 festivals, garnering awards at both Tribeca Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Shorts fest. Soon after, Maggie received the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant for her debut feature, Brightest Star. The film, starring Chris Lowell and Academy Award winner Allison Janney, was released by Gravitas. Later films include Dial a Prayer, starring Brittany Snow and William H Macy released in the Spring of 2015 and thriller Caught starring Anna Camp for Mar Vista Entertainment. Caught world premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival as one of eight films in competition in the genre section: Nightfall and was later acquired by A & E.
Buoyed by the support of many diversity programs including the Fox Directors Lab, Film Independent’s Directing Lab and WeForShe, Maggie made the transition to episodic directing after being selected as the first participant in Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative. Her debut episode of Scream Queens was well received and launched a fast paced two years. Additional television credits include directing the pilot and finale episodes of The CW’s Katy Keene for showrunners Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Michael Grassi; Pretty Little Liars for HBO Max, multiple episodes of The CW’s Riverdale; Marvel’s The Gifted; Netflix’s anthology series What/If; Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina; SYFY’s George R.R. Martin series, Nightflyers; and YouTube Red’s Impulse.
Most recently Maggie served as director and executive producer for the Netlflix/WBTV series Keep Breathing, starring Melissa Barrera, for showrunners Martin Gero and Brendan Gall. Maggie directed the first 3 episodes of the 6 episode event series which reached Global #1 on the platform in the first week of release, out seating Stranger Things and Virgin River. Other recent credits include director and executive producer of the first two episodes of Peacock’s critically acclaimed limited series Dr. Death, starring Joshua Jackson, Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater. Dr. Death received three Critic’s Choice Award nominations including a Best Actor nomination for Jackson. Maggie also served as director and co-executive producer of Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, the second installment in the anthology series. Maggie directed four out of the eight episodes of this season, including its premiere and finale, allowing her vision to set the tone for the series.
It was recently announced that Maggie signed a major exclusive, multi-year overall deal at Warner Bros TV. Under the pact, she will render director and executive producer services for the studio, in addition to developing new TV projects for broadcast, cable and streaming services. Current development includes an adaptation of Coco Mellor's book Cleopatra & Frankenstein and a limited musical series with Brownstone Entertainment as well as an adaptation of the book Beautiful Criminals with showrunner Melissa Carter and Alloy Entertainment.
“‘Maggie Kiley, the writer-director of Dial a Prayer, is a sly puss. Her film begins as a seemingly snarky satire of all those God-for-a-dollar movements, with Cora the most virulent atheist there ever could be. But gradually, its deeper meaning sets in—i.e., the need of everyone for some kind of deep solace in their crazy lives, with bad-ass, former hard-partying girl Cora the most in need of all. The film becomes a rather touching portrait of a young woman’s human growth, laced with a salutary number of small yet piquant observations along the way.’”
“‘Kiley comes by these character studies earnestly, one of her most distinctive and endearing qualities as a filmmaker being the sincerity with which she explores the often flawed people at the center of her stories.’”
