# Brit Marling

**Brit Marling** (born 1982) is an American actress, screenwriter, and producer who broke into cinema by co-writing, co-producing, and starring in two films that premiered together at the 2011 [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival), *Another Earth* and *Sound of My Voice*, and who later co-created the Netflix series *The OA* (2016–2019) and the FX/Hulu limited series *A Murder at the End of the World* (2023).

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1982, Chicago, Illinois; parents both work in real estate<sup>[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1779870/)</sup> |
| Education | Georgetown University, bachelor's degree in economics (class of 2005); turned down a job offer from Goldman Sachs to pursue art<sup>[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1779870/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://alumni.georgetown.edu/speaker/brit-marling/)</sup> |
| Breakthrough | Two films she co-wrote, co-produced, and starred in, *Another Earth* and *Sound of My Voice*, both premiered at Sundance 2011 and were bought by Fox Searchlight<sup>[3](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/brit-marling-true-brit-6267308.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a22782/brit-marling-interview/)</sup> |
| Signature TV | *The OA*, co-created with Zal Batmanglij for Netflix, 2016–2019, canceled after two seasons on a cliffhanger<sup>[5](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/10/brit-marling-zal-batmanglij-the-oa-murder-end-world-interview)</sup> |
| Directing debut | *A Murder at the End of the World* (2023), co-created with Batmanglij for FX/Hulu, in which she also plays Lee<sup>[6](https://www.thewrap.com/a-murder-at-the-end-of-the-world-brit-marling-interview-fx-hulu/)</sup> |
| Recognition | Independent Spirit Award nominations for *Another Earth* (Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay) and *Sound of My Voice* (Best First Feature, Best Supporting Female)<sup>[2](https://alumni.georgetown.edu/speaker/brit-marling/)</sup> |

## Early life and Georgetown

Marling grew up in Chicago and moved to Washington, D.C., to attend [Georgetown University](https://www.edgepedia.org/georgetown-university), where she majored in economics and studio art. After a summer internship at [Goldman Sachs](https://www.edgepedia.org/goldman-sachs) she turned down a job offer at the investment bank, telling them she wanted to be an artist.<sup>[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/brit-marling-of-another-earth-does-stardom-her-way/2011/07/19/gIQAhmijTI_story.html)</sup> In interviews she has described the choice as driven by a search for interesting work rather than finance: after graduating she moved to Los Angeles with her friends Mike Cahill and [Zal Batmanglij](https://www.edgepedia.org/zal-batmanglij), both aspiring filmmakers she had met at Georgetown, and began trying to act with no formal training, no representation, and no résumé.<sup>[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/brit-marling-of-another-earth-does-stardom-her-way/2011/07/19/gIQAhmijTI_story.html)</sup>

Her first screen work was with these collaborators. She took her first acting job in Batmanglij's American Film Institute thesis film, *The Recordist*, and, with Cahill, made the documentary *Boxers and Ballerinas* (2004), about aspiring young athletes in Havana, Cuba, and neighboring Florida.<sup>[8](https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=51121431&itype=CMSID)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/brit_marling)</sup> The Sundance Institute's profile of Marling records that she, Cahill, and Batmanglij entered a 48-hour filmmaking competition at Georgetown, an experience that taught her every aspect of low-budget production.<sup>[10](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/meet-the-artists-brit-marling-3/)</sup>

**Writing her own roles.** Acting work did not come easily. The parts offered to her were, in her account, variations on "Terrified Girl No. 1" in slasher films; she concluded that the only way to act in material she cared about was to write it herself.<sup>[11](https://time.com/4045522/brit-marling-keeping-room-profile/)</sup> For roughly two years she wrote in the mornings with Cahill on one film and in the afternoons with Batmanglij on another, producing two complete micro-budget features.<sup>[3](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/brit-marling-true-brit-6267308.html)</sup>

## The 2011 Sundance breakthrough

Both films premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, *Another Earth* in the U.S. Dramatic [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) and *Sound of My Voice* in the NEXT showcase for micro-budget work, and both were acquired by Fox Searchlight.<sup>[10](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/meet-the-artists-brit-marling-3/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/brit-marling-true-brit-6267308.html)</sup> In *Another Earth*, directed by Cahill, Marling played Rhoda Williams, a young woman whose drunk-driving accident destroys a family and who seeks out the surviving widower ([William Mapother](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-mapother)) after a duplicate Earth appears in the sky; the film won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for a film focusing on science and technology and a Special Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.<sup>[12](https://anthemmagazine.com/qa-with-brit-marling/)</sup> In *Sound of My Voice*, directed by Batmanglij, she played Maggie, a cult leader who claims to have traveled from the year 2054.<sup>[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/brit_marling)</sup>

The dual premiere made her the festival's breakout figure, and the coverage emphasized that she had arrived not only as an actress but as a writer and producer of her own material.<sup>[3](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/brit-marling-true-brit-6267308.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/brit-marling-of-another-earth-does-stardom-her-way/2011/07/19/gIQAhmijTI_story.html)</sup> The Georgetown alumni record lists Independent Spirit Award nominations for both films: Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay for *Another Earth*, and Best First Feature and Best Supporting Female for *Sound of My Voice*.<sup>[2](https://alumni.georgetown.edu/speaker/brit-marling/)</sup>

## Film career

After Sundance, Marling worked as an actress for hire on larger productions: *Arbitrage* (2012), opposite [Richard Gere](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-gere), remains her highest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes at 87 percent, and *The Company You Keep* (2012), [Robert Redford](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-redford)'s directorial return, cast her after Redford saw her two Sundance films.<sup>[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/brit_marling)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[13](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jun/28/brit-marling-the-east-connundrum)</sup> She also played Liz Garvey in [Danny Boyle](https://www.edgepedia.org/danny-boyle) and Jesse Armstrong's Channel 4 police drama *Babylon*.<sup>[5](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/10/brit-marling-zal-batmanglij-the-oa-murder-end-world-interview)</sup>

Her third collaboration with Batmanglij as writer, *The East* (2013), cast her as Sarah, an undercover corporate spy infiltrating an anarchist collective; to research it, she and Batmanglij spent time embedded in the freegan movement, hopping freight trains and foraging for discarded food.<sup>[14](https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/brit-marling-the-east)</sup> In 2014 she appeared in Mike Cahill's *I Origins* as lab partner Karen, and took roles in *The Keeping Room* (2014), Julia Hart's Civil War siege drama, and *The Better Angels* (2014), in which she played [Nancy Lincoln](https://www.edgepedia.org/nancy-lincoln).<sup>[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/brit_marling)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[15](https://parikiaki-cdn-1.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/20191107164355/ALL-PAGES76.pdf)</sup> *The Keeping Room* was notable to her because, for once, she did not have to write the part herself: the character of Augusta, a woman defending her household while inhabiting traditionally masculine roles, was written for a woman to play.<sup>[11](https://time.com/4045522/brit-marling-keeping-room-profile/)</sup>

## Television: *The OA* and *A Murder at the End of the World*

*The OA*, co-created by Marling and Batmanglij for Netflix and premiering in 2016, made the pair television creators. Marling starred as Prairie Johnson, a blind woman who returns after a seven-year disappearance with her sight restored, and gathers five strangers in an abandoned house to tell them her story of near-death experiences, captivity, and inter-dimensional travel.<sup>[5](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/10/brit-marling-zal-batmanglij-the-oa-murder-end-world-interview)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[16](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_oa/s01)</sup> Batmanglij directed every episode of the first season.<sup>[16](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_oa/s01)</sup> Critical reception was sharply divided: some critics found the show boundary-pushing and absorbing, while others judged its mythology impenetrable, but it attracted a devoted audience that has continued to campaign for its continuation after Netflix canceled it on a cliffhanger following the second season.<sup>[17](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-oa/critic-reviews/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/10/brit-marling-zal-batmanglij-the-oa-murder-end-world-interview)</sup> A scholarly study published by Liverpool University Press treats the series as an ambitious exploration of identity, belief, and the construction of reality, placing it alongside the work of [David Lynch](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-lynch) and the writings of [Jorge Luis Borges](https://www.edgepedia.org/jorge-luis-borges) and [Philip K. Dick](https://www.edgepedia.org/philip-k-dick).<sup>[18](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.38401857)</sup>

The pair's next series, *A Murder at the End of the World* (2023), moved them to FX/Hulu. It stars [Emma Corrin](https://www.edgepedia.org/emma-corrin) as Darby, a hacker-turned-true-crime writer solving cold cases, and combines a classic locked-room mystery with themes of technology, artificial intelligence, and climate change; Marling and Batmanglij have writing or directing credits on every episode, and the series marked Marling's first time in the director's chair.<sup>[19](https://time.com/6331145/murder-at-the-end-of-the-world-review/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://www.thewrap.com/a-murder-at-the-end-of-the-world-brit-marling-interview-fx-hulu/)</sup> She has described stepping back from acting on the project to focus on directing, while also appearing as the character Lee.<sup>[6](https://www.thewrap.com/a-murder-at-the-end-of-the-world-brit-marling-interview-fx-hulu/)</sup> In interviews around the series she noted that themes she and Batmanglij had written as speculative, such as deepfakes, became real-world concerns before the show aired.<sup>[20](https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a45830338/brit-marling-murder-at-the-end-of-the-world-interview/)</sup>

## Collaboration with Zal Batmanglij

Marling's most characteristic work has come through her partnership with Batmanglij, which spans two features, *Sound of My Voice* and *The East*, and two series. The French newspaper *Le Monde* describes the two as having imposed their taste for genre-blending and their indie sensibility across these projects, with Batmanglij directing and the two writing together.<sup>[21](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/03/15/zal-batmanglij-realisateur-les-algorithmes-promeuvent-des-programmes-qui-vont-marcher-le-plus-vite-possible_6222153_3246.html)</sup> Their work shares recurring preoccupations: closed or semi-spiritual communities, stories told by a charismatic narrator whose account the audience must choose to believe or doubt, and speculative premises grounded in ordinary human drama.<sup>[22](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/news/a51648/the-oa-netflix-interview-brit-marling-zal-batmanglij/)</sup> She has also developed projects outside the partnership, including *Uncanny Valley*, a film described by its star and producer [Natasha Lyonne](https://www.edgepedia.org/natasha-lyonne) as a personal, video-game-centric big action movie, in production with Marling and the computer scientist Jaron Lanier.<sup>[23](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/natasha-lyonne-power-play-panel/)</sup>

## References

1. [Brit Marling, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1779870/)
2. [Brit Marling (C'05), Georgetown Alumni](https://alumni.georgetown.edu/speaker/brit-marling/)
3. [Brit Marling: True Brit, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/brit-marling-true-brit-6267308.html)
4. [Q&A: Brit Marling, Indie Star You Need to Know, Esquire](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a22782/brit-marling-interview/)
5. [OA writers Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij: 'We've had to create our own reality', The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/10/brit-marling-zal-batmanglij-the-oa-murder-end-world-interview)
6. ['A Murder at the End of the World' Cocreator Brit Marling Took a 'Step Back From Acting' for Directing Debut, TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/a-murder-at-the-end-of-the-world-brit-marling-interview-fx-hulu/)
7. [Brit Marling of 'Another Earth' does stardom her way, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/brit-marling-of-another-earth-does-stardom-her-way/2011/07/19/gIQAhmijTI_story.html)
8. [Actor Brit Marling: A double-double threat - The Salt Lake Tribune](https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=51121431&itype=CMSID)
9. [Brit Marling Movies & TV Shows List, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/brit_marling)
10. [Meet the Artists: Brit Marling, Sundance Institute](https://www.sundance.org/blogs/meet-the-artists-brit-marling-3/)
11. [Brit Marling on Feminist Western 'The Keeping Room' and Writing Honest Roles for Women, TIME](https://time.com/4045522/brit-marling-keeping-room-profile/)
12. [Q&A with Brit Marling, Anthem Magazine](https://anthemmagazine.com/qa-with-brit-marling/)
13. [The East: from Goldman Sachs to freeganism, Brit Marling is a Hollywood conundrum, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jun/28/brit-marling-the-east-connundrum)
14. [The Collected Brit Marling, Interview Magazine](https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/brit-marling-the-east)
15. [Film Reviews by George Savides, Parikiaki (25 September 2014)](https://parikiaki-cdn-1.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/20191107164355/ALL-PAGES76.pdf)
16. [The OA: Season 1, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_oa/s01)
17. [The OA Critic Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-oa/critic-reviews/)
18. [David Sweeney, The OA, Liverpool University Press (2022), via JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.38401857)
19. [A Murder at the End of the World Is a Smart, Stylish Cozy Mystery, TIME](https://time.com/6331145/murder-at-the-end-of-the-world-review/)
20. [Brit Marling on A Murder at the End of the World, Lee Andersen, and A.I., ELLE](https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a45830338/brit-marling-murder-at-the-end-of-the-world-interview/)
21. [Zal Batmanglij, réalisateur, Le Monde (15 March 2024)](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/03/15/zal-batmanglij-realisateur-les-algorithmes-promeuvent-des-programmes-qui-vont-marcher-le-plus-vite-possible_6222153_3246.html)
22. [The OA Creators Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij Break Down the Mysteries of Netflix's Surprise Series, Esquire](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/news/a51648/the-oa-netflix-interview-brit-marling-zal-batmanglij/)
23. [Natasha Lyonne Wants Entertainment to Embrace the Unknown, Marie Claire](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/natasha-lyonne-power-play-panel/)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 2000s onward › Surnames M to Ma*

*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*

*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*

License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license