Actors Who Became Respected Directors

Greta Gerwig spent a decade acting in low-budget mumblecore films and co-writing Frances Ha with Noah Baumbach before her solo directing debut, Lady Bird (2017). Little Women (2019) and Barbie (2023), the highest-grossing film ever directed solely by a woman, showed a voice that stays personal at any budget.

Jordan Peele moved from the sketch comedy of Key & Peele to horror with Get Out (2017), which made him the first Black writer to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Us (2019) and Nope (2022) confirmed a director who uses genre to explore race, spectacle and fear, each film bigger and stranger than the last.

Bradley Cooper spent years developing A Star Is Born (2018), his directing debut, which earned eight Oscar nominations. Maestro (2023), his portrait of Leonard Bernstein, earned seven more, and the stand-up comedy drama Is This Thing On? (2025) showed him moving towards smaller, more personal stories.