Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American documentary filmmaker. She was the director, along with her husband, Jimmy Chin, for the film Free Solo, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film profiled Alex Honnold and his free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017. Their first scripted film venture was Nyad, a biopic chronicling Diana Nyad's quest to be the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida. Vasarhelyi grew up in New York City, and is the daughter of Marina Vasarhelyi, a college administrator, and Miklós Vásárhelyi, a college professor. Her father is a Hungarian-born Brazilian and her mother is from Hong Kong. Vasarhelyi is a graduate of The Brearley School. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University.
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Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American documentary filmmaker recognized for directing high-stakes non-fiction features alongside frequent collaborator Jimmy Chin.
She is best known for directing the Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo, as well as acclaimed features such as Meru, The Rescue, and the biographical drama Nyad.
Her portfolio centers on immersive documentary filmmaking detailing extreme human endurance and survival, complemented by narrative biographical projects.
