Amy Seimetz Biography

Amy Lynne Seimetz is an American writer, producer, director, editor and actress. She is a series regular on AMC's The Killing and recurring on HBO's Family Tree.

She first acquired some degree of prominence producing and directing shorts and independent films, including Barry Jenkins' Medicine for Melancholy, which was nominated for Gotham and Independent Spirit Awards, after playing at South By Southwest and the Toronto International Film Festival. She acted in Joe Swanberg's Alexander The Last, which premiered at SXSW. She also worked with Swanberg on Silver Bullets (Berlin, SXSW) and Autoerotic, continuing with acting roles in Lawrence Levine's Gabi on the Roof in July, Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture (SXSW), Kentucker Audley's Open Five, and David Robert Mitchell's Myth of the American Sleepover (Cannes).

Her performance in A Horrible Way to Die won her the Best Actress award at Fantastic Fest. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to good reviews.

Seimetz is probably most known for her performance in Megan Griffiths' The Off Hours, which premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2011. The Los Angeles Times wrote of Seimetz that "Every year, the Sundance Film Festival has a semi-official "It" girl who encapsulates the festival's cocktail of discovery and buzz. But what about someone who embodies the independent film world's sense of community and the pitch-in spirit of collaboration, something like a most valuable player? That prize might well go to Amy Seimetz." The Hollywood Reporter singled her out as one of the breakouts of Sundance that year, along with such other actresses as Brit Marling, Elizabeth Olsen, and Felicity Jones. "As a late-night truck-stop waitress and orphaned lost soul, Seimetz invests Off Hours' dead-end world of tiny tragedies with a hidden, hard-won strength."

Seimetz rounded out an all-star cast in the Tribeca Film Festival premiere Revenge for Jolly directed by Chadd Harbold. In 2012 Seimetz made her narrative feature directorial debut with her Florida-based thriller Sun Don't Shine, which she also wrote, produced, and co-edited. The film premiered at the South By Southwest film festival to rave reviews. Indiewire wrote that "her [Seimetz's] terrific directorial debut Sun Don't Shine was a brilliant noir exercise with less mumbling than raw brawls. She pinned me to my Alamo Drafthouse seat and the film kept me there for the next 82 minutes."

Seimetz is the star of Shane Carruth's Upstream Color and Yen Tan's Pit Stop, both of which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. In February, Seimetz was added as a series regular on AMC's revived series The Killing. In season 3 she plays Danette Leeds, described as "a hard-living, financially strapped single mother whose 14-year-old daughter goes missing."

Filmography

As director

• The Unseen Kind-Hearted Beast (2005) (short)
• We Saw Such Things (2008) (documentary short)
• Round Town Girls (2009) (short)
• Sun Don't Shine (2012)

As writer

• Sun Don't Shine (2012)

As producer

• The Unseen Kind-Hearted Beast (2005) (short)
• Medicine for Melancholy (2008)
• We Saw Such Things (2008) (documentary short)
• Dish & The Spoon (2011)
• Silver Bullets (2011)
• No Matter What (2011)
• Sun Don't Shine (2012)

As actress

• Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
• One Night Only (2009)
• Alexander the Last (2009)
• A Horrible Way to Die (2010)
• Bitter Feast (2010)
• Myth of the American Sleepover (2010)
• Open Five (2010)
• Tiny Furniture (2010)
• Gabi on the Roof in July (2010)
• You're Next (2011)
• Autoerotic (2011)
• Small Pond (2011)
• No Matter What (2011)
• Silver Bullets (2011)
• The Dish and the Spoon (2011)
• The Off Hours (2011)
• 9 Full Moons (2012)
• The Proxy (2012)
• Be Good (2012)
• Unicorns (2012)
• Revenge for Jolly (2012)
• Sun Don't Shine (2012)
• The Killing (2013)
• Family Tree (2013)
• Lucky Them (2013)
• Upstream Color (2013)
• Pit Stop (2013)
• You're Next (2013)

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Award	Result
2010	Tiny Furniture	Gotham Independent Film Awards Award for Best Ensemble Performance
	Myth of the American Sleepover	SXSW Film Festival Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast
2011	A Horrible Way To Die	Fantastic Fest Best Actress
2012	Sun Don't Shine	SXSW Film Festival Special Jury Award - Emergent Narrative Woman Director
		Gotham Independent Film Awards Award for Best Film Not Playing At A Theater Near You
		RiverRun International Film Festival Special Jury Prize - Spark Award
		Indiewire Best of 2012 Best Undistributed Film