Maria Burton

Director / Producer / Actor

Named by Variety as “talent to watch,” Burton has directed 3 indie pilots and 6 successful independent feature films, the latest of which are available on Netflix and Amazon: A Sort of Homecoming, with Laura Marano and Katherine McNamara, and For the Love of George, with Rosanna Arquette, Tate Donovan, Rex Lee & Kristen Johnston. Earlier films Just Friends (AMC/WE/Netflix), Temps (Netflix), and Manna from Heaven (MGM/SONY) are currently being remastered to be archived in AMPAS’s permanent collection.

Burton helms Five Sisters Productions with her real-life siblings, through which she directed the pilot for the Emmy qualifying short form series Old Guy and produces films and short form content including the ongoing Half the History series (with Tufts University), The Happiest Day of His Life (MTV/Logo), Kings, Queens & In-Betweens, and Julia Sweeney’s Letting Go of God (Showtime).

Burton has been selected for television directing programs including Disney/ABC Directing Program, DGA’s DDI Emerging Directors, CBS Directing Initiative, Ryan Murphy’s HALF Fellowship, SONY Diverse Directors Program, and ProjectHER, for which she wrote and directed the short pilot Good Eggs. She was recently hired to direct the indie pilot, Now What?!, to be released in late 2026.

Burton served on the National Board of the DGA and two terms as Co-Chair of the DGA’s WSC, DGA’s Committee of Joint Co-Chairs; Co-Chair of Alliance of Women Directors for 6 years; and is a member of Film Fatales. She’s currently in development on projects including the limited series Searching for Tamsen Donner, based on her mother’s award winning books; and Mercury 13, a drama inspired by the women tested for the original astronaut program, which has been named to the Athena List, the BitchList/ Bechdel List, won a CineStory Fellowship, and is a Nicholl Quarterfinalist.

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