Biography
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American documentary filmmaker and director. She co-directed and co-produced the 2018 film Free Solo with Jimmy Chin, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2019. The film follows climber Alex Honnold's free solo ascent of El Capitan.
Vasarhelyi grew up in New York City. She is a graduate of the Brearley School and holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. Her other directing credits include Meru (2015), The Rescue (2021), Return to Space (2022) and Nyad (2023). She has collaborated frequently with her husband, the filmmaker and mountaineer Jimmy Chin.
