Olivia Newman

Olivia Newman is an American film director and screenwriter. She is best known for directing First Match and Where the Crawdads Sing.

Life and career

Newman was born in Hoboken, New Jersey and graduated from The Hudson School in 1996. She holds an A.B. in French and women's studies from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in film from Columbia University. Her first short film, Blue-Eyed Mary, was shown at the Portland Oregon Women's Film Festival in 2010.
Newman made her feature directorial debut with the drama film First Match starring Elvire Emanuelle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo and Jharrel Jerome, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival. First Match was released by Netflix in 2018.
She directed the 2022 mystery thriller film Where The Crawdads Sing, an adaptation of the 2018 novel of the same name by Delia Owens. Despite mixed reviews from critics, audience reception was more positive and the film subsequently became a sleeper hit at the box-office, grossing $140 million on a $24 million budget.

Short film

Feature film

Year	Title	Director	Writer
2018	First Match
2022	Where the Crawdads Sing
2026	Remarkably Bright Creatures

Television

Year	Title	Notes
2019	Chicago Fire	Episodes "What Will Define You", "Move a Wall", "Badlands" and "Mercy"
2020	FBI	Episode "Broken Promises"
2023	The Last Thing He Told Me	Miniseries