Los Alamitos, California native Brenna Malloy is a writer-director who has a passion for bringing female characters with depth to the silver screen and an affinity for directing action. Malloy graduated from the University of San Francisco with a BA in media studies and a minor in theater. She went on to earn an MFA in film production with an emphasis in directing from Chapman University.
In 2020, Brenna made her television directorial debut with the Season 8 episode of Chicago Fire, "Protect a Child."
Malloy participated in the competitive Filmmaker-In-Residence program with Gary Foster p.g.a. while developing her master’s thesis film “Rocket,” which throws the audience into the world of 1950’s dirt track racing, a world her family history is steeped in. The short earned a Student Academy Award® in 2016, an Individual Merit Award for Best Director at the Richmond International Film Festival, awards in China and the United Kingdom, and has screened in more than 40 festivals in eight countries.
Malloy’s experimental short “Candy Apple Red” celebrated its world premiere at The Bentonville Film Festival in 2018, and her horror short “The Birthday” screened at genre festivals all over the U.S. In the spring of 2019, Malloy directed a feature documentary about activist Manal Al-Sharif's Freedom Drive across America.
As a participant of Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative, Malloy shadowed executive producer and director Brad Buecker on Fox’s hit show “9-1-1” Previously, she was closely mentored by directors David Ward and Martha Coolidge, and shadowed Martha on an episode of “Angie Tribeca.”