Marita
grabiak
director
about marita
Marita Grabiak is a veteran television director known for her visual boldness, global curiosity, and fierce storytelling instincts. With over two decades of experience directing scripted television, feature-length TV movies, and immersive documentaries, she continues to break new ground—in both technology and terrain.
In 2025, Marita directed a groundbreaking documentary commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, becoming the first filmmaker to capture Mount Suribachi and the surrounding Marianas Islands (Saipan, Guam, Tinian) with a 360-degree camera system. She extended this cinematic exploration to Peleliu in Palau—blending historical reverence with technological innovation.
In 2024, she helmed a suite of high-profile TV movies including a full production filmed entirely in Niagara Falls, the whimsical Winter Castle Romance shot at Québec’s Hôtel de Glace, and the Lifetime comedy Laughing All the Way. For Hallmark, she directed Fly Away with Me, where she doubled as a stunt performer for a biplane sequence, and Love in Yellowstone, a romantic western shot on location in British Columbia. Her versatility also shines through in 911 and 911: Lone Star, where she directed multiple episodes across three seasons under the banner of Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative, proudly mentoring up-and-coming directors.
During the pandemic, Marita became the first director to return to camera in North America, launching production on Fit for a Prince—which went on to become Hallmark Channel’s highest-rated TV movie of all time.
When not on set, Marita is often on the road—camera in hand. During the 2023 industry strike, she documented French Polynesia and the remote Marquesas Islands, retracing the footsteps of Gauguin, Melville, and Stevenson. Her deep-sea explorations have taken her to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and WWII wreck sites beneath the Pacific.
Her short films span the globe, from the Maasai of Tanzania and Bushmen of Botswana to the majestic Victoria Falls, which she has filmed from land, air, raft—and at the very edge of the cascade. Her poetic documentary The Silk Road in Central Asia was filmed in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, while Poland: Three Generations traced her family lineage through a personal journey with her daughter and 90-year-old mother.
She’s collaborated with acclaimed actors including Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding Jr., Emma Stone, Chris Pratt, George Clooney, Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates, Kyle MacLachlan, Sarah Paulson, Peter Coyote, Gene Hackman, Danny Glover, and Sally Field.
Born in a steel town outside Pittsburgh, Marita studied theater at Carnegie Mellon, trained in New York theater, and earned a degree in Film and Television from UCLA, with a minor in Art History. Her creative lens is shaped by cinema, world history, indigenous cultures, literature, and art—each one leaving a fingerprint on her work.
