Rachel Talalay

Talalay states that ever since Doctor Who was revived in 2005, she wanted to work on the show. Talalay directed all three of Peter Capaldi's series finales: series 8's "Dark Water" and "Death in Heaven", series 9's "Heaven Sent" and "Hell Bent"—the former considered by many to be one of the best episodes in the show's 56-year history— and series 10's "World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls", as well as the Doctor Who 2017 Christmas special, "Twice Upon a Time". In 2019, she was hired by Netflix to direct an adaption of Joe Ballarini's A Babysitter’s Guide To Monsters.

Talalay also directed Tank Girl in 1995, and was looking into re-optioning the rights to make a new film in 2008. As a film producer, Talalay worked with director John Waters on the films Hairspray (1988) and Cry-Baby (1990). She was also a production assistant on Waters' 1981 film Polyester.

Talalay has worked in a number of different capacities in filmmaking before making her directorial debut with the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). Talalay also worked on the first four A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Her work with the earlier Nightmare films utilized her computer skills and finding ways to create better special effects while still keeping costs low. Despite her familiarity with the Freddy movies, when she directed Freddy's Dead, she was given internal memos telling her not to be "too girly" or "too sensitive."

Talalay met British film producer Rupert Harvey while working on Android in 1982. They began a relationship soon after, and were married in 1990, with John Waters officiating the wedding. They have two daughters.

Talalay was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her father Paul Talalay was a pharmacologist, born in Berlin to a Russian Jewish family, and her mother Pamela is an English biochemist. She has two sisters and a brother. She was raised mostly in the United States, with two years of her childhood in Britain. Talalay attended Yale, where she majored in mathematics, graduating in 1980. She also ran the Yale Film Society.

Rachel Talalay (born 16 August 1958) is a British-American film and television director and producer. She is also a University of British Columbia film professor.