Greta Gerwig is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She was mainly centered on acting at the beginning of her career, earning a Golden Globe nomination for the character-titled movie, “Frances Ha” (2012).
Gerwig pursued theater in high school, which she continued in Barnard college at Columbia University in New York City. She graduated in 2006 after studying English and philosophy.
She worked to become a screenwriter originally, but after getting rejected from programs she focused mainly on her acting career.
She had small roles in movies while still in college, eventually getting bigger ones in the late 2000s. Making her way up in the film industry, director Noah Baumbach, her now husband and co-writer in films, casted her in the 2010 movie titled “Greenberg” starring Ben Stiller.
In 2017, she wrote and directed her first solo project, “Lady Bird”.
Lady Bird, the semi-autobiographical story of a high school senior figuring out her life in Sacramento, in my opinion is one of the most phenomenal movies to ever exist.
For this being her directorial debut, it’s extremely impressive, to say the least. The movie was produced by A24, a popular production company for unique and exceptionally artistic films.
The movie was highly rated by critics and cinephiles globally, being Oscar nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, as well as nominated for 16 awards from notable sources, winning 6 of them.
I interviewed Alaa Alchabli to see what she thought about the movie, as I recommended it to her.
Q: What did you think about the movie?
A: It was really good and sad, I cried a couple times. I definitely relate to Lady Bird’s relationship with her mom.
Q: What would you rate it out of 10?
A: 8.
Q: Do you see why the movie got so many awards, especially being Greta’s first work?
A: I didn’t know it was her first work, but it definitely deserves all the awards it got.
In 2019, she directed and wrote the adaptation of Lousia May Alcott’s “Little Women”, following the lives of four sisters in the years after the Civil War.
The film earned 6 Academy Award nominations, winning one overall. The film has been regarded as “gloriously acted” and “visually scrumptious”, as well as gaining a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
While these two projects were big, they weren’t nearly as big as her 2023 success, “Barbie”. Barbie grossed over 1.446 billion dollars, with Little Women earning 218 million, and Lady Bird earning 79 million worldwide.
Barbie was released in the summer of 2023, which was also humorously known as the summer of “Barbenheimer” as ‘Oppenheimer’ had the same release date.
The film was extremely popular in the summer, primarily for the feminist ideology that destroyed the stereotypical “girly girl” assumption, like Barbies might normally symbolize.
In late March of 2025, the live action version of “Snow White” written by Gerwig is set to come out. While it’s directed by Marc Webb, her talented work on the film will surely be apparent.
Gerwig is now set to write and direct the adaptation of “Narnia”, rumored to be released in November of 2026. We can certainly expect more revolutionary and iconic films from the talented mind of Greta Gerwig.