Rachel Talalay

Rachel Talalay
Talalay in 2016
Born	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Alma mater	Yale University
Occupations	Producer writer director professor
Years active	1981–present
Spouse	Rupert Harvey ​ (m. 1990)​
Children	2
Parent	Paul Talalay (father)

Rachel Talalay is an American producer, writer, and director. She is best known for directing films such as Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), Ghost in the Machine (1993), and Tank Girl (1995). Her television credits include episodes of Ally McBeal , Supernatural , Doctor Who , Sherlock , Riverdale , Doom Patrol , Superman & Lois , and Quantum Leap .

Talalay is also a professor at the University of British Columbia. ^[1]

Early life and education

Talalay was born in Chicago. Her father Paul Talalay was a pharmacologist, born in Berlin to a Belarusian Jewish family, and her mother Pamela is an English biochemist. She has two sisters and a brother. ^[2] She was raised mostly in Baltimore, with two years of her childhood in Britain. ^[1] Talalay attended Yale University, where she majored in mathematics, graduating in 1980. ^{[3] [4]} She also ran the Yale Film Society. ^[3]

Career

Talalay worked in a number of different capacities in filmmaking before making her directorial debut with the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). ^[5] Talalay also worked on the first four A Nightmare on Elm Street films. ^[3] Her work with the earlier Nightmare films utilized her computer skills and finding ways to create better special effects while still keeping costs low. ^[3] 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." ^[6]

Talalay also directed Tank Girl in 1995, and was looking into re-optioning the rights to make a new film in 2008. ^[7] 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 . ^[8]

Talalay states that ever since Doctor Who was revived in 2005, she wanted to work on the show. ^[9] Talalay directed all three of Peter Capaldi's series finales: series 8's "Dark Water" and "Death in Heaven", ^[10] series 9's "Heaven Sent" and "Hell Bent"—the former considered by many to be one of the best episodes in the show's history ^[11] —and series 10's "World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls", ^[12] as well as the Doctor Who 2017 Christmas special, "Twice Upon a Time". ^[13] She returned to Doctor Who in 2023 for "The Star Beast" with David Tennant & Catherine Tate returning as the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble as part of the show's 60th anniversary. In 2019, she directed a film adaption of Joe Ballarini's A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting for Netflix. ^[14]

Personal life

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. ^{[4] [15]} Talalay and Harvey have a daughter named Lucy. ^[16]

Filmography

Films

Director

• Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) (also story writer)
• Ghost in the Machine (1993)
• Tank Girl (1995)
• A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting (2020)

Producer

• Hairspray (1988)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
• Cry-Baby (1990)
• The Borrowers (1997)

Television

TV movies

• A Tale of Two Wives (2003)
• The Wind in the Willows (2006)
• Hannah's Law (2012)
• The Dorm (2014)
• Unclaimed (2016)

TV series

Year	Title	Episodes	Ref
1997	Band of Gold	"Tainted Love (Part 1)" "Tainted Love (Part 2)"
1998	To Have & to Hold	"Turkey Day Blues" "Who's Sorry Next?"
	Touching Evil (U.K. Series)	"War Relief: Part 1" "War Relief: Part 2"
1999–2002	Ally McBeal	"Saving Santa" "Prime Suspect" "Two's a Crowd" "Blowin' in the Wind"
2000	Boston Public	"Chapter Five"
	Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)	"Mental Apparition Disorder" "A Blast From the Past"
2001	That's Life	"Miracle at the Cucina"
	State of Grace	"Eve of Discussion"
	Wolf Lake	"Tastes Like Chicken"
	Dice	"Episode #1.1" "Episode #1.2" "Episode #1.3" "Episode #1.4" "Episode #1.5" "Episode #1.6"
2002	Without a Trace	"He Saw, She Saw"
	Crossing Jordan	"Four Fathers"
2002–2007	The Dead Zone	"Shaman" "Symmetry" "Ego"
2002–2003	The Division	"A Priori" "Castaways"
2003	Cold Case	"Sherry Darlin"
2004	Touching Evil (U.S. Series)	"Y Me"
	Life as We Know It	"Natural Disasters"
	Unfabulous	"The Perfect Couple"
2005	Sex, Love & Secrets	"Protection" (Unaired)
	Terminal City	"Episode #1.1" "Episode #1.2" "Episode #1.7" "Episode #1.8"
2006	Whistler	"In The Air" "After The Fall" "Scratching The Surface" "Meltdown"
2007	Supernatural	"Hunted"
	Greek	"Separation Anxiety"
	Kyle XY	"Hands on a Hybrid" "Leap of Faith"
2008	Flash Gordon	"Blame"
2009	Da Kink in My Hair	"Of Papers and Patois" "Playing Social" "Honesty the Best Policy?"
	Durham County	"Boys Do Things" "Consumed"
2010	Cra$h & Burn	"Lawyers, Guns & Money" "Bond Blame Baptize"
	Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures	"How to Get Ahead in Medical School" "Family Practice" "Unhappy Endings"
	Haven	"Harmony" "Surviving the Fall"
2011	Endgame	"Gorillas in Our Midst"
	Hiccups	"Sexual Healing"
2012	Continuum	"Time's Up"
	XIII: The Series	"Breakout" "Mousetrap"
2013	Bomb Girls	"Party Line" "Fifth Column"
	Played	"Cars" "Revenge"
2014	Reign	"Sacrifice"
2014–2015, 2017, 2022–2023	Doctor Who	"Deep Breath" (2014) (uncredited, 1 scene) "Into the Dalek" (2014) (uncredited, 1 scene) "Dark Water" (2014) "Death in Heaven" (2014) "Heaven Sent" (2015) "Hell Bent" (2015) "World Enough and Time" (2017) "The Doctor Falls" (2017) "Twice Upon a Time" (2017) "The Power of the Doctor" (2022) (uncredited, 1 scene) "The Star Beast" (2023)
2015	South of Hell	"Judge and Fury" "White Noise"
2016–2023	The Flash	"Fast Lane" "The Present" "Fury Rogue" "Cause and XS" "Masquerade" "The Mask of the Red Death, Part 2"
2016–2021	Legends of Tomorrow	"Last Refuge" "Meat the Legends"	[17]
2016–2019	Supergirl	"Welcome to Earth" "Suspicious Minds"
2017	Sherlock	"The Six Thatchers"
2018–2021	Riverdale	"Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine" "Chapter Forty-One: Manhunter" "Chapter Fifty-Seven: Survive the Night" "Chapter Eighty-Four: Lock & Key"
2018	Iron Fist	"The City's Not for Burning"
	Chilling Adventures of Sabrina	"Chapter Six: An Exorcism in Greendale"
2019	Doom Patrol	"Puppet Patrol"
	American Gods	"Donar the Great"	[18]
2021	Superman & Lois	"The Best of Smallville"
2022	Quantum Leap	"A Decent Proposal"

Partial Accolades

Leo Awards

• Best Direction Dramatic Series - Winner - Terminal City - For Episode 8 ^[19]

References

1. Bailey, Ian (8 August 2014). "Q&A: UBC professor went from Doctor Who fan to director of this season's finale". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 6 September 2015.
2. "Dr. Paul Talalay, Johns Hopkins molecular pharmacologist who made broccoli famous as a cancer fighter, dies". The Baltimore Sun . 13 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
3. Wigler, Stephen (27 September 1991). "'Freddy's Dead' Gives Rise to Career". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016– via HighBeam Research.
4. Wigler, Stephen (September 8, 1991). "A Friend of Freddy Krueger: Rachel Talalay has worked on five 'Elm Street' films". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved February 12, 2020.
5. "A Nightmare On Elm Street : Interviews – Rachel Talalay". Nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com. 2005-03-22. Retrieved 2014-12-27.
6. Rohter, Larry (17 March 1991). "Are Women Directors an Endangered Species?". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
7. Anderson, Martin (August 5, 2008). "Rachel Talalay for Tank Girl reboot". Den of Geek! . Archived from the original on May 5, 2018.
8. Rachel Talalay Biography, Film Reference
9. Collis, Clark (3 November 2014). "Doctor Who Director Rachel Talalay Talks 'Dark Water'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
10. "Film Prof Directs Doctor Who Season Finale". The University of British Columbia. Archived from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
11. Reynolds, Andrew (20 December 2015). "Directing Doctor Who: Rachel Talalay's Notes on Heaven Sent". Katerborous. Archived from the original on December 21, 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
12. "Original Mondasian Cybermen return to Doctor Who!". BBC . 6 March 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
13. "The 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special will be called..." Radio Times. 23 July 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
14. Fleming, Joe Jr. (April 15, 2019). "Netflix Turning A Babysitter's Guide To Monsters Into Family Film; Rachel Talalay To Direct". Deadline. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
15. Collis, Clark (July 19, 2016). "Rachel Talalay talks going from Tank Girl to Sherlock". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved February 12, 2020.
16. "rtalalay/status/1267260469682683905". Twitter. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
17. Sage, Alyssa (2016-03-29). "TV News Roundup: 'Legends of Tomorrow' Casts Young Heat Wave, Shark Week Sets Premiere Date". Variety. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
18. "Home – American Gods S2 Presskit". Starz . Archived from the original on February 12, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
19. "2006 NOMINEES & WINNERS" (PDF). www.leoawards.com. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 11, 2024.

External links

• Rachel Talalay at IMDb