Born on November 27, 1951, in San Carlos, California, Kathryn Bigelow is a popular filmmaker known for her incredible visuals and heart-pounding action sequences. In 1979, Bigelow moved from short to feature-length films. In 1981, she created The Loveless. She attracted more notice for her next effort, Near Dark. Her next project was 1991’s Point Break. After that, she tried her hand at television, directing the miniseries Wild Palms. She co-created the movie The Hurt Locker (2008), for which won an Academy Award for best director—becoming the first woman to receive this honor—and directed Zero Dark Thirty in 2012.