Kathryn Ann Bigelow (/ˈbɪɡəˌloʊ/; born November 27, 1951) is an American director, producer, and writer. Her films include the vampire Western horror film Near Dark (1987), the action crime film Point Break (1991), the science fiction action thriller Strange Days (1995), the mystery thriller The Weight of Water (2000), the submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), the war film The Hurt Locker (2008), the action thriller war film Zero Dark Thirty (2012), the short film Last Days (2014), and the period crime drama Detroit (2017). The Hurt Locker won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture and the BAFTA Award for Best Film, and was nominated for the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Drama. She has also acted as producer and writer for many of her films.
With The Hurt Locker, Bigelow became the first, and as of 2017 the only, woman to win any of the Academy Award for Best Director, the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing, the BAFTA Award for Best Direction, and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director. She also became the first woman to win the Saturn Award for Best Director in 1995 for Strange Days.