Biography

Laurie Agard, born to a father and grandfather who were Olympic and professional athletes, grew up strong and tall in Durango, Colorado. Recruited at a tender age to play college basketball by scouts from a neighboring state, she became an Academic All-American Athlete at 18. Graduating with dual degrees in Romance Languages and Writing, she proceeded to author five books, including a book of poetry that extended her family's proud Olympics tradition by winning the Bay Area Olympiad of the Arts.

Craving the comraderie of a larger creative community, Laurie formed her own production company and wrote, produced and directed her first film, a children's comedy, Frog and Wombat. The film, which she edited on a 35mm flatbed in a supply closet in the Saul Zantz Film Center, sold in 45 territories around the world. It made its television premiere on HBO, followed by Showtime, Starz, Encore, and ABC. Laurie was nominated into the Director's Guild of America by three-time Oscar winner Walter Murch.

Laurie continued writing, directing, and producing low budget films. Her second feature, Fast Women, is described in its Amazon.com squib as "one of the best documentaries about female athletes ever made." The film won the award for Best Documentary Feature at the New York film festival, and Laurie received a Woman of the Achievement award from the California Women's Fund.

In 2002 Laurie realized her greatest dream, starting a family. After an extended maternity leave with her cherished son, she returned to film and moved to Los Angeles in 2007. She then wrote, directed, and produced two independent films for the DGA's Personal Filmmaking series, one of which recently won a Kids Choice Award at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Last June, Laurie helped create the DGA's first ever event honoring its female members, co-directing the evening's tribute film, A Celebration of Women Directors. On that project she met fellow director Betty Thomas, who hired Laurie to help with her development and production needs at CBS and Fox for 18 months. From there she went with Executive Producer, Michele Imperato Stabile to work on I HOP at Universal.

Laurie is a dual Australian-American citizen. She is an active member of Director's Guild of America (DGA), the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Australian Writer's Guild, the Australian Producer's Guild, and the Australian Screen Director's Association (ASDA). She has lectured at MIT, Scripps College, San Jose State University, and University of California Santa Cruz. Laurie serves on the Board of Directors of Shoes That Fit, a California-based non-profit, which provides new shoes to school-aged children of need. She is a member of the Advisory Board for Dance Camera West, a non-profit recently voted "Best of Los Angeles" by the Los Angeles Times," dedicated to introducing quality dance film from around the world to Los Angeles.

Laurie is currently co-producing Playdate Bay, an animated children's television series developed by Drew Tolman.