Laura Terruso

Laura Terruso is a director, producer, and cinematographer who began as a New York comedy performer. Terruso started her filmmaking career while studying for her Media/Culture Masters degree at NYU, making short films from 2006 to 2013, including His Name is Cosmo (2006) and The Last Butcher in Little Italy (2008), and Dyke Dollar (2009).

Terruso expanded one of her short films, 2011’s Doris & The Intern, into the feature screenplay (with credited co-writer and director Michael Showalter) for the well-reviewed comedy-drama (on which she also received a co-producer credit), Hello, My Name is Doris (2015), starring Sally Field, Max Greenfield, Beth Behrs, Tyne Daly, Stephen Root, Natasha Lyonne, and Kumail Nanjiani, and earning a vital $14.7 million box office on a $1 million budget.

Terruso’s first feature as producer-writer-director was Fits and Starts (2017), with Wyatt Cenac, Greta Lee, and Maria Dizzia, premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Terruso was co-writer/director (with screenwriter Jennifer Nashorn Blankenship) of the teen comedy, Good Girls Get High (2018), with Abby Quinn, Stefanie Scott, Lauren Lapkus, and Isabelle Fuhrman.

After her first director-only feature credit (2020’s Work It, which bypassed theatrical for Netflix streaming) and serving as a director on the hit Apple TV+ series, Dickinson (2019-2021), Laura Terruso was director of Lionsgate’s father-son comedy, About My Father (2023), starring Sebastian Maniscalco (also co-writer), Robert De Niro, Leslie Bibb, Anders Holm, David Rasche, and Kim Cattrall.

Terruso also served as cinematographer on filmmaker Chet Pancake’s documentary, Queer Genius, with Barbara Hammer and Eileen Myles, and was a producer on the lesbian-themed comedy, The Foxy Merkins (2013), starring Lisa Haas and co-writer Jackie Monahan, as well as Todd Solondz’s segment titled, 3013, for Venice 70: Future Reloaded, a 70-director project celebrating the Venice film festival’s 70^th anniversary.