Meet the Instructors

Maria Gargiulo

Writer and Director

An Emmy Award-winning director-producer, Maria Gargiulo has had her work appear on PBS, the Discovery Channel, Fox, CBS and at film festivals around the world. She began her film career as a commercial producer, working with clients such as Chrysler and General Mills. Among her works in drama, The Collectors, the story of two enforcers for a small-time bookie, picked up the prize for Best Television Drama at the ITVFest in Los Angeles. Got 2 Come Up: A Day in the Life of a Young Man, which focuses on the struggles of a teenager considering gang membership, was named Best Short Dramatic Film of the USA Film Festival and won a Black Programming Consortium Award.

In addition to earning 14 regional Emmys, her work has been honored with several American Film Festival Awards, Cine Golden Eagle Awards, Best of the Northwest Festival Awards, Chicago Film Festival Hugo Awards, Houston International Film Festival Awards, and the Women in Film Nell Shipman Award. Gargiulo is a graduate of Stanford University and the American Film Institute. She was the first recipient of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.