Ugla Hauksdóttir

Biography

Ugla Hauksdóttir is an Icelandic film and television director, screenwriter, editor, and producer, born on July 31, 1989, in Reykjavík, Iceland. She studied photography and experimental filmmaking at The Cooper Union in New York before earning an MFA in screenwriting and directing from Columbia University.

Hauksdóttir began her career making short films, including Salt (2014), How Far She Went (2017), and Sealskin (2020). Her short film How Far She Went earned her the Outstanding Directorial Achievement Award in the Women's Category at the 2016 Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards. She also became the first Icelandic woman to join the Directors Guild of America.

She transitioned into television directing with the Icelandic crime drama Trapped, directing two episodes of its second season. She subsequently directed three episodes of Amazon's Hanna and an episode of FX's Snowfall.

Hauksdóttir gained international attention for her work on Amazon's science-fiction drama The Power (2023), based on Naomi Alderman's novel. She directed four episodes of the series, including "The World Is on Fu*king Fire," "A New Organ," "Scarlet Minnow," and "Sparklefingers."

She later directed two episodes of the science-fiction horror series Alien: Earth (2025), further expanding her television career into the science-fiction and horror genres.

Hauksdóttir made her feature-film debut with The Fires (Eldarnir), which she wrote and directed. The Icelandic disaster drama is adapted from Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir's novel and marked an important step in her transition from television and short filmmaking to feature cinema.

With a career spanning short films, music videos, television, and feature films, Ugla Hauksdóttir is recognized for works including The Power, Hanna, Snowfall, Trapped, Alien: Earth, and The Fires.