Gabriela Cowperthwaite

In 2019, it was announced Cowperthwaite would direct The Friend, starring Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson and Jason Segel, revolving around real-life couple Nicole and Matthew Teague, faced with Nicole’s impending death, see their best friend move in with them to help them out.

In 2017, Cowperthwaite's first feature film, Megan Leavey was released. A drama based on real events, the film follows a corporal in the U.S. Marine's K9 unit, working with a German shepherd named Rex to detect explosives and weapons during the Iraq War.

Her most notable film, Blackfish (2013), had 60 million views in its first years, and won Cowperthwaite a BAFTA nomination for Best Documentary.

In 2013, Cowperthwaite directed her second documentary Blackfish, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, before she found a larger audience among television via her distribution partner CNN. Blackfish is one of Cowperthwaite's controversial documentaries as it tells the story of Tilikum, a killer whale at the Sea World theme park in Orlando, Florida who killed its trainer, Dawn Brancheau. The film created the new movement called "The Blackfish Effect" that stems from the documentary. By investigating the treatment of orcas in captivity through news and archival footage, interviewing former trainers and marine mammal experts, and questioning the ethics of captivity Cowperthwiate created her film. In 2016, Seaworld announced it would stop breeding orcas and put an end to all killer whale performances by 2019, which was largely attributed to Cowperthwaite's documentary. The film however received a number of criticisms from trainers involved in the project, believing information was willfully withheld to support the thesis of the story. Claims of interviewees of substandard quality were voiced by Bridgette Pirtle, herself a former trainer.

In 2010, Cowperthwaite directed City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story, making her debut in independent feature documentary-making. The subject was chosen by her classmate, Tor Myhren. The documentary tells the story of Tor's brother Erik, who at the time was an elementary school teacher that put together a lacrosse team in a rough urban neighbourhood to play a rich white kids' sport. The film debuted on ESPN in 2010.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite (born 1971) is an American filmmaker who also directs, produces, edits, and writes for television and documentary films. She has directed two documentaries and released two feature films. Her films often deal with social, cultural and environmental issues relating to real life events.