Amber Sealey is an award-winning filmmaker who most recently directed the Disney+ / Participant / Big Beach film OUT OF MY MIND, for which she won the 2025 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs. Based on the bestselling book of the same name by Sharon Draper, the film stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Luke Kirby, Judith Light, Jennifer Aniston, and newcomer Phoebe-Rae Taylor. The film premiered at Sundance 2024 and was nominated for two Critic’s Choice Awards — Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie (Phoebe-Rae Taylor) and Best Movie Made for Television. It was also nominated for a WGA Award, won Best Narrative Film at Woodstock Film Festival, Best Family Film at the Mill Valley Film Festival, was honored by the Rudderman Foundation for authentic portrayal of disabled communities, and holds a 100% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Her feature NO MAN OF GOD (SpectreVision / Company X / XYZ Films / RLJ Entertainment), starring Elijah Wood and Luke Kirby, was theatrically released in the summer of 2021 to rave reviews and premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival.
She has been supported by Sundance, Film Independent, Women In Film, and is a fellow of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women. She was selected for Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative, the NBCUniversal Directors Initiative, the WeForShe DirectHer program, Film Independent’s Directing Lab, and their Fast Track program.
Her short film, HOW DOES IT START, world premiered at Sundance and (among other awards) won Best Narrative Short at Sarasota FF, and is being turned into a feature film.
Her feature NO LIGHT & NO LAND ANYWHERE was theatrically released by Factory 25 and won a Special Jury Award at the LA Film Festival. IndieWire said the film could “further cement Sealey’s reputation as one of the most promising directors of female-driven stories working the U.S. today” and the NY Times said it had, “a zing not only of originality, but of daring,” while Variety called her, “One-to-watch.” EP’d by Miranda July, it won the Indie Vision Breakthrough Award at Twin Cities FF.
Her second feature, HOW TO CHEAT, won Best Performance at LAFF, and won both Best Narrative and Best Acting at BendFilm. Huffington Post said it was, “Amazing... laugh-out-loud hilarious... I really can't speak highly enough about this movie.” Her first film, A PLUS D, was released by IndiePix and critics said, “Fact and fiction are obliterated.. edgy, anguished, funny.. The acting is astonishing.. I thought of Cassavetes, Winterbottom.”
Amber worked in London for eight years with the groundbreaking and award-winning devised theatre company Shunt. Amber has a BA in Theatre Arts and Modern Dance from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MA from The Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She studied Shakespeare at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
She is attached to various projects, all of which she is excited to bring into the world, including her original scripts BODICE RIPPER and COMING OF AGE.
She lives in Los Angeles with her family.