Personal details
Born:
- Born Place: New York, New York, USA
Victoria Mahoney
Victoria Mahoney is an accomplished American filmmaker, producer, and actress, originally from New York. She launched her career in the 1990s with acting roles on shows like Seinfeld (as "Gladys") and in films such as Legally Blonde, later appearing in a French adaptation of Atlantide . Transitioning behind the camera, she wrote, produced, and directed her semi-autobiographical feature debut Yelling to the Sky (2011), starring Zoë Kravitz and Jason Clarke. This film premiered in the main competition at the Berlin International Film Festival and earned her prestigious fellowships from Sundance, Tribeca, and others. Mahoney built a strong television directing résumé with episodes across acclaimed series like Queen Sugar, Claws, Seven Seconds, You, Power, The Red Line, Grey’s Anatomy, Lovecraft Country, and more. In 2018, she made history as the first woman—and first Black woman—to direct second-unit on a Star Wars film, working under J.J. Abrams on The Rise of Skywalker. Her ascent into big-budget filmmaking was further propelled by that recognition and support from Ava DuVernay . Beyond Star Wars, she’s ventured into high-profile projects: in 2020 she collaborated with DuVernay to develop Dawn (the Octavia E. Butler sci‑fi adaptation) for Amazon, and she was later tapped by Deadline to direct Netflix’s The Old Guard 2 (2025).Other development credits include Paramount’s action thriller Kill Them All and Lionsgate’s Shadow Force, expanding her reach into studio features. Widely recognized for her bold, textured visual storytelling and her rise in both indie and franchise filmmaking, Mahoney has been honored as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” IndieWire/ShadowAndAct’s “Filmmakers to Watch,” and Elle’s “3 Filmmakers to Watch in Hollywood” . She is also a member of AMPAS and BAFTA, and represented by CAA and Del Shaw.
