Serial Pictures Signs Filmmaker Victoria Mahoney

By Egotist / January 20, 2020 /

Filmmaker Victoria Mahoney has signed to production company Serial Pictures for director representation for commercials, branded entertainment, and music videos in the US. Mahoney has been named to Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” one of IndieWire’s “Filmmakers to Watch” and one “3 Filmmakers to Watch” by Elle Magazine‘s in their Women In Hollywood issue.

Mahoney made history as the first African American female director to join the Star Wars franchise, when she recently completed directing second unit for executive producer and director J.J. Abrams on the highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. In her latest work, she bridged her film and commercial careers, directing a commercial for United Airlines and Star Wars. The spot, “Fly The Friendly Galaxy,” which promotes the airlines partnership with the film, features one of the fleet’s actual aircraft marshallers signaling a United plane for takeoff, when, suddenly, she’s transported to another planet – her wands become lightsabers and the aircraft transforms into a A-wing interceptor, as she guides the starfighter to safety.

Mahoney is also an accomplished television director, having helmed episodes of popular series, including ‘“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Claws,” “I Am The Night,” “You,” “Power,” Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar” and the DuVernay and Greg Berlanti-produced “The Red Line.”

View her reel here:

Victoria Mahoney

Originally from New York, Mahoney began her artistic career as a theater actress. After working off Broadway, she moved to Los Angeles, where she quickly gained acting credits including “Seinfeld” and Legally Blonde. She then transitioned into writing, penning the script for her emotionally nuanced feature debut Yelling to the Sky, about a teenager growing up in a mixed-race family. The film, which Mahoney also directed and produced, starred Zoë Kravitz, Jason Clarke, Gabourney Sidibe and Tim Blake Nelson. She developed the film through the Directors and Screenwriters Sundance Institute Labs and was named an Auerbach Fellow, Annenberg Fellow, Cinereach Fellow, Maryland Fellow, Tribeca Fellow and IFP Narrative Lab fellow for her work. Yelling to the Sky world premiered in ‘Main Competition’ at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Bear.

The Rise of Skywalker, which will be released in theaters December 20, is the final chapter of the epic Skywalker saga begun 42 years ago with Star Wars: A New Hope. In The Rise of Skywalker, Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) journey continues as she, Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega) and the rest of the surviving Resistance face Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the First Order once more.

Mahoney is also currently in development, along with DuVernay and Charles D. King’s Macro, on adapting Octavia E. Butler’s sci-fi novel Dawn into a television series. The 1987 classic about an African American woman who works with aliens to resurrect the human race 250 years after a nuclear war will notably be the first time that the Nebula- and Hugo Award-winning author’s work has been adapted for television.