Mary Harron is a Canadian director and screenwriter, known for a varied and acclaimed body of work spanning genres, time periods, and mediums.

Her most recent directorial feature, Daliland, released through Magnolia Pictures and starring Ben Kingsley as Salvador Dali, premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival. Other notable films include the creepy vampire thriller The Moth Diaries (2011), for which she was director and screenplay writer; and Charles Says, directed by Harron and starring Matt Smith and Merritt Wever, based on the true story of the deprogramming of the incarcerated Manson Family “girls.”  Both films premiered at the Venice Film Festival and were released by IFC Films. 

Harron gained early recognition as writer and director from her first three acclaimed independent features, which have all attained cult status: I Shot Andy Warhol (National Board of Review Award), American Psycho, and The Notorious Bettie Page, the latter two films written with regular collaborator Guinevere Turner. But it is American Psycho that has transcended and become a bona fide classic. The film, based on the iconic Bret Easton Ellis novel, stars Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Samantha Mathis, Chloë Sevigny, Justin Theroux, and Reese Witherspoon, in staggering performances. Arguably no director has captured 1980s decadence with such scathing satire before or since.