Catherine Andre is a biracial, bicostal film director who makes dark, funny love stuff, usually about theater people, eccentric creatives and academics who are much more comfortable in a library than in real life. She is an actors’ director with a passion for female-centered storytelling across genres, mediums and cultures. She recently graduated from the American Film Institute as a Directing Fellow where her thesis film, BEHIND THE MASK, won Amazon’s Innovative Storytelling Grant. She is a proud alumna of the Fulbright Scholar Program, Princeton University, Interlochen Arts Academy, FAMU International, and the Drama League residencies.
Catherine started directing at Interlochen Arts Academy in the MPA program. Eager to put her surreal love stories in context, she went to Princeton to study the great books and learn about our shared human condition. She started directing plays, from genre- and gender-bent new work to classics, and received multiple research grants to study directing in Europe. After graduating, she moved to NYC where she assisted Off-Broadway and directing radical new work and Shakespeare adaptations.
In 2018, she won a Fulbright grant and moved to Europe to explore Shakespeare as a vehicle for cultural exchange, assisting legendary directors Andrei Șerban, Silviu Purcărete, and Robert Woodruff, and learning how to create visceral performances that are fundamentally theatrical. After winning additional Fulbright funding, Catherine put these methods into practice in her own radical, feminist Shakespeare productions while partnering with playwrights to develop new work. Directing performances in languages she did not speak pushed Catherine to use gesture and emotion to tell stories beyond words, which became a cornerstone of her directing practice across mediums.
During the pandemic, Catherine pivoted to making “virtual plays” with the support of Scholastic. In 2022, she completed FAMU International’s one-year intensive course in narrative directing. After directing short films in the UK and Prague, Catherine relocated to Los Angeles as a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute, Class of 2025. At AFI, Catherine has co-written/directed five narrative short films and developed three feature films (two rom-coms and a horror, all about messy love triangles). Her thesis film — BEHIND THE MASK — won Amazon’s Innovative Storytelling award.
