Brit Heyworth Marling (born August 7, 1982 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actress, screenwriter and film producer.
She graduated from Georgetown University, with a bachelor's in economics, and was offered a job with Goldman Sachs, which she turned down in favor of a career as an artist. After which, she moved to Los Angeles with friends Mike Cahill and Zal Batmanglij to pursue screenwriting and acting.
She first gained recognition in 2004 with the documentary Boxers and Ballerinas and later became a Sundance star through the Searchlight movies Sound of My Voice, Another Earth, and The East, which she co-wrote in addition to playing the lead role. The first two were featured simultaneously at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
She appeared in:
- Another Earth - also co-writer and producer
- Sound of My Voice - also co-writer and producer
- Community note
- Arbitrage
- The East - also co-writer and producer
- The Company You Keep
- The Better Angels
- Posthumous
- I Origins
- The Keeping Room
- Babylon
- The OA - Also co-creator, co-writer, and executive-producer
- A Murder At The End Of The World - Also co-creator, co-writer, director, and executive producer
Tropes
- Auteur License: Often writes and produces the films and series she also appears in.
- Bittersweet Ending: Her films never end in a clean-cut Happily Ever After. Her characters in particular tend to never get smooth endings or/and closures.
- Fan Disservice: When she disrobes in her films, the situation her characters are in usually makes it unenticing.
- Two Guys and a Girl: She, Cahill and Batmanglij were friends even before they become a Production Posse.
