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Jodie Markell, born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, attended Northwestern University, where she was mentored by writer/director Frank Galati (Ragtime, The Grapes of Wrath) in adapting literature for stage and screen. After relocating to New York, she trained as an actress at Circle-in-the-Square Professional Theater School. Markell played a key role in rediscovering Tennessee Williams' play Confessional, starring in its New York premiere. Her acting career flourished as she collaborated with prominent theater directors such as John Patrick Shanley, John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Simon Curtis, and Michael Greif, as well as playwrights including David Lindsay-Abaire, Will Scheffer, David Marshall Grant, Theresa Rebeck, and Lanford Wilson. She performed at venues like Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theater Club, Circle Rep, The Public, Steppenwolf, Naked Angels (where she was a company member), Williamstown, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Markell appeared in films directed by Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch, Todd Haynes, Ira Sachs, and Barry Levinson, and had a recurring role on HBO's Big Love. After earning an OBIE award for her lead role in Sophie Treadwell's Machinal at The Public—a 1929 play she rediscovered and brought to Joseph Papp's attention—she was invited by Richard Eyre and the National Theater in London to serve as creative consultant to Stephen Daldry on his acclaimed production of Machinal featuring Fiona Shaw. Markell directed several plays at Naked Angels, including Nicole Burdette's After the Deerhunter, starring Logan Marshall-Green. She adapted and directed the award-winning short film "Why I Live at the P.O.," based on Eudora Welty's classic story and starring Robert Morse. The film screened at numerous festivals such as the Seattle Film Festival/Women in Cinema and the Hamptons Film Festival, winning the Lumiere Award and the Moviemaker Magazine Breakthrough Award—the highest honor at the New Orleans Film Festival. It was also invited to screen at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. Markell's feature film directorial debut, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, is adapted from an original screenplay by Tennessee Williams. The film stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Ellen Burstyn, Will Patton, and Ann-Margret, and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival before its theatrical release. The New York Times described it as "a significant feat of reclamation," while the LA Times called it "lovely" and "a film to savor, rich in ways that are all too rare these days." Markell has served as a guest teaching artist at various universities, high schools, film festivals, and literary events, and currently teaches Directing Actors in the Columbia University MFA Film Program.
