Rory Kennedy is an Academy Award–nominated and Primetime Emmy–winning documentary filmmaker whose work spans more than forty films. Her acclaimed documentaries include DOWNFALL: THE CASE AGAINST BOEING (Netflix), LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM (PBS/American Experience), and ETHEL (HBO), all of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Her films have been released across major streamers and broadcasters, including Netflix, HBO, National Geographic, PBS, and Hulu.

Kennedy and her husband, Emmy-nominated writer-producer Mark Bailey, co-founded Moxie Films. Most recently, Kennedy directed and produced QUEEN OF CHESS, a Netflix feature documentary about Judit Polgár, the Hungarian chess prodigy who broke through the male-dominated world of international chess. The film premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, marking Kennedy and Bailey’s tenth documentary to premiere there, and was released by Netflix in February 2026.

In 2024, Kennedy directed and produced THE SYNANON FIX, a four-part HBO documentary series examining the rise and transformation of Synanon from a celebrated addiction treatment program into a cult-like organization. The series premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024.

She also directed and produced THE VOLCANO: RESCUE FROM WHAKAARI, in partnership with Netflix, Imagine Entertainment, and Appian Way Productions. The film chronicles the devastating 2019 eruption on Whakaari / White Island and became Netflix’s #1 film globally.

Her 2022 documentary DOWNFALL: THE CASE AGAINST BOEING, produced with Imagine Entertainment, investigates the events surrounding the fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes and their aftermath. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to break into Netflix’s Global Top 10.

Kennedy’s recent work also includes TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON (2017), an intimate portrait of legendary big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton; LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM (2014), which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature; and ETHEL (2012), a portrait of her mother, Ethel Kennedy, which received five Primetime Emmy nominations.

Her producing credits include KILLING IN THE NAME (2011), nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short; STREET FIGHT (2009), nominated for Best Documentary Feature; and GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB (2007), which won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special.

Additional projects include ABOVE AND BEYOND: NASA’S JOURNEY TO TOMORROW for Discovery Channel, THE FENCE, which opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, the HBO series PANDEMIC: FACING AIDS, and AMERICAN HOLLOW, which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.

Kennedy’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, and she has appeared on programs including The Daily Show, Today, Good Morning America, CNN, and NPR.

Kennedy recently served two terms as a Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is the founder of the Climate Emergency Fund, which supports climate activists. She lives outside Los Angeles with Bailey, their three children, two nice dogs, one very mean dog, and a sixty-two-year-old tortoise named Zippy.