Katherine Connor Duff is an independent writer-director working in dark comedy, drawing inspiration from classic cinema and the great auteurs: Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Hitchcock and Truffaut.
As a writer, she is a voracious consumer of history and human behavior. As a director, she digs into the truth behind Hollywood’s hierarchy, the contradictions of American history, and the shifting reputation of women.
She does not shy away from the ugly thoughts we all have in the backs of our heads- she leans in.
Duff grew up in San Francisco, spending time at the original home of Sam Shepard: The Magic Theater, and began by writing and directing her own work as a teenager. In New York, this progressed, soaking up knowledge at Marymount Manhattan College. When she moved to LA, she co-founded The Foxhole Theater Company, where her plays and films received multiple accolades from Culver City Film Festival, Worldfest Houston, and an LA Scenie for Best Drama. Her play The Ninth Door was featured in an interview with KCRW.
Transitioning to solo work, Duff established herself as a distinctive directing voice. Her first credited solo short, The Slate, earned Best Story at the Toronto Female Film Festival, Honorable Mentions at the Red Movie Awards in France and One Reeler in LA, and received press coverage in Canada, France and Los Angeles.
Her subsequent short, Pay Deferred, screened at LA Shorts and Big Apple Film Festival among others, won Best Short Film at Oniros Film Awards and Best Ensemble at Berlin Short Film Awards, was nominated for Best Comedy Short at the Lonely Wolf Film Festival in London.
