Residing in Tāmaki Makaurau, Writer-Director Mary-Lyn Chambers was born in Fiji and raised in Nauru and Aotearoa. She has worked in Los Angeles, London and Doha and is known for tackling stories about inequality in the narrative space in mixed languages. Chambers is a directing Fellow from the Sony Pictures Television Diverse Directors Program, Film Independent and the Directors and Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Female Incubator. Diversity in Cannes named her top ten female directors to watch.
In 2023, Chambers participated in the inaugural Five in a Room: A Television Series Writer’s Room, breaking five series over five weeks to develop showrunners in Aotearoa. Separately, she was among ten artists selected out of 257 to participate in the prestigious Château de la Napoule artist residency in the South of France.
Chambers is developing a historical crime drama series set in 1920s Mexico and penning a New Zealand-based series exploring a toxic man’s journey coming to terms with his influence on a suicide during the Springbok Tour. Separately, Creative New Zealand funded KARANGA, a collaboration with Māori choreographer Merenia Gray for Sky TV, which premiered at Mōariland and the Wairoa Māori Film Festival.
2019 Chambers created a bilingual PSA series about childhood trauma for broadcast and social media campaigns. Her Imagen Award-nominated short film pilot TIJUANA screened at Slamdance, Bentonville, and HollyShorts and was selected for Content London in their Short2Series programme.
Chambers won Best TV Pilot at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival, Best International Short Film at the Manchester Film Festival and Best Female Director at HollyShorts. Her film exploring child refugees screened at The American Pavilion, Diversity in Cannes, and participated in the United Nations Refugee Voices in Film Conference at the Cannes Film Festival.
Chambers spent a decade as the Associate Producer of the Spirit Awards and worked as an Event Producer for the LA Film Festival, Denver International Film Festival and in Qatar for the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.
Raised as an activist, Chambers is vocal about justice, inclusion and equality.
