Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an award-winning American documentary filmmaker. She is best known for her work on the acclaimed documentaries Free Solo and Meru.
Vasarhelyi was born on December 29, 1972 in New York City. She attended Wesleyan University, where she studied visual arts, and then went on to earn an M.F.A. in film production from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.
Vasarhelyi began her career in filmmaking in the late 1990s, working as an editor on documentaries for television, including the critically acclaimed series “The Awful Truth”. In 2005, she co-directed the feature-length documentary A Normal Life, which won the Grand Special Jury Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a Gotham Award.
In 2015, she co-directed the documentary Meru, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and the U.S. Documentary Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award.
In 2018, Vasarhelyi co-directed the documentary Free Solo, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film follows professional rock climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to free solo climb El Capitan, a massive, vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park.
In addition to her documentary work, Vasarhelyi has also directed music videos and short films. She has also served as a producer on projects such as the documentary The Perfectionist, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.
Vasarhelyi continues to make documentary films, including the upcoming feature-length documentary The Fight for Whiteclay, which explores a decades-long fight over the sale of alcohol in a tiny Nebraska town.
Vasarhelyi is married to fellow filmmaker Jimmy Chin, with whom she has two children.
