Rachel Talalay

Early life and education

Talalay was born in Chicago. Her father Paul Talalay was a pharmacologist, born in Berlin to a Belarusian Jewish family, and her mother Pamela is an English biochemist. She has two sisters and a brother. She was raised mostly in Baltimore, with two years of her childhood in Britain. Talalay attended Yale University, where she majored in mathematics, graduating in 1980. She also ran the Yale Film Society.

Career

Talalay worked in a number of different capacities in filmmaking before making her directorial debut with the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). Talalay also worked on the first four A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Her work with the earlier Nightmare films utilized her computer skills and finding ways to create better special effects while still keeping costs low. Despite her familiarity with the Freddy movies, when she directed Freddy's Dead, she was given internal memos telling her not to be "too girly" or "too sensitive."

Talalay also directed Tank Girl in 1995, and was looking into re-optioning the rights to make a new film in 2008. As a film producer, Talalay worked with director John Waters on the films Hairspray (1988) and Cry-Baby (1990). She was also a production assistant on Waters' 1981 film Polyester.

Talalay states that ever since Doctor Who was revived in 2005, she wanted to work on the show. Talalay directed all three of Peter Capaldi's series finales: series 8's "Dark Water" and "Death in Heaven", series 9's "Heaven Sent" and "Hell Bent"—the former considered by many to be one of the best episodes in the show's history—and series 10's "World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls", as well as the Doctor Who 2017 Christmas special, "Twice Upon a Time". She returned to Doctor Who in 2023 for "The Star Beast" with David Tennant & Catherine Tate returning as the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble as part of the show's 60th anniversary. In 2019, she directed a film adaption of Joe Ballarini's A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting for Netflix.

Personal life

Talalay met British film producer Rupert Harvey while working on Android in 1982. They began a relationship soon after, and were married in 1990, with John Waters officiating the wedding. Talalay and Harvey have a daughter named Lucy.

Filmography

Films

Director

• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) (also story writer)
• Ghost in the Machine (1993)
• Tank Girl (1995)
• A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting (2020) Producer
• Hairspray (1988)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
• Cry-Baby (1990)
• The Borrowers (1997)

Television

TV movies

• A Tale of Two Wives (2003)
• The Wind in the Willows (2006)
• Hannah's Law (2012)
• The Dorm (2014)
• Unclaimed (2016)

TV series

Partial Accolades

[[Leo Awards]]

• Best Direction Dramatic Series - Winner - Terminal City - For Episode 8

References

References

1. Bailey, Ian. (8 August 2014). "Q&A: UBC professor went from Doctor Who fan to director of this season's finale". [[The Globe and Mail]].
2. (13 March 2019). "Dr. Paul Talalay, Johns Hopkins molecular pharmacologist who made broccoli famous as a cancer fighter, dies". [[The Baltimore Sun]].
3. Wigler, Stephen. (27 September 1991). "'Freddy's Dead' Gives Rise to Career". Chicago Sun-Times.
4. Wigler, Stephen. (September 8, 1991). "A Friend of Freddy Krueger: Rachel Talalay has worked on five 'Elm Street' films". [[The Baltimore Sun]].
5. (2005-03-22). "A Nightmare On Elm Street : Interviews – Rachel Talalay". Nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com.
6. Rohter, Larry. (17 March 1991). "Are Women Directors an Endangered Species?". The New York Times.
7. Anderson, Martin. (August 5, 2008). "Rachel Talalay for Tank Girl reboot". [[Dennis Publishing.
8. [http://www.filmreference.com/film/1/Rachel-Talalay.html Rachel Talalay Biography], Film Reference
9. Collis, Clark. (3 November 2014). "Doctor Who Director Rachel Talalay Talks 'Dark Water'".
10. "Film Prof Directs Doctor Who Season Finale". The University of British Columbia.
11. Reynolds, Andrew. (20 December 2015). "Directing Doctor Who: Rachel Talalay's Notes on Heaven Sent". Katerborous.
12. (6 March 2017). "Original Mondasian Cybermen return to Doctor Who!". [[BBC]].
13. (23 July 2017). "The 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special will be called...". Radio Times.
14. Fleming, Joe Jr.. (April 15, 2019). "Netflix Turning ''A Babysitter's Guide To Monsters'' Into Family Film; Rachel Talalay To Direct". [[Deadline Hollywood.
15. Collis, Clark. (July 19, 2016). "Rachel Talalay talks going from Tank Girl to Sherlock".
16. "rtalalay/status/1267260469682683905".
17. Sage, Alyssa. (2016-03-29). "TV News Roundup: 'Legends of Tomorrow' Casts Young Heat Wave, Shark Week Sets Premiere Date".
18. "Home – American Gods S2 Presskit".
19. (2006). "2006 NOMINEES & WINNERS".