Lisa Cortés is a two-time Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated director and producer known for creating bold, transformative stories that shine a light on hidden narratives. From executive-producing the Academy Award®-winning Precious to directing and producing Little Richard: I Am Everything, she has consistently championed underrepresented voices and sparked cultural change through her work. Cortés is renowned for her ability to discover unique voices and stories, guide projects through development and production, and successfully bring them to market through sales to major studios.
Lisa Cortés’s acclaimed documentaries include The Space Race (National Geographic Documentary Films), a gripping exploration of African American astronauts at NASA and in space, which won the prestigious duPont-Columbia Award. She also directed and produced All In: The Fight for Democracy (Amazon), tracing the ongoing struggle for voting rights, and produced the Emmy-winning The Apollo (HBO), a powerful documentary on the historic Apollo Theater’s role in African American culture.
In 2023, her film Little Richard: I Am Everything (CNN Films) premiered as the opening night selection in the U.S. documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival. The film earned 26 award nominations, including a Grammy nomination for Best Music Film, and was praised for its unfiltered portrayal of the rock ‘n’ roll legend. Also premiering at Sundance was Invisible Beauty (Magnolia Pictures), a documentary about fashion pioneer Bethann Hardison which she produced, and which won the NAACP Award for Outstanding Documentary Film.
In May of 2025, Hulu’s Top Ten Most Watched Series featured Murder Has Two Faces, produced and directed by Lisa Cortés. Hosted by Robin Roberts, the series explores the impact of race on how true crime stories are investigated by police and covered by the media. In 2026, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded All the Empty Rooms, a documentary Cortés executive-produced, the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film.
Cortés first gained global recognition in 2009 as an executive producer of Precious, a groundbreaking film that was nominated for six Academy Awards® and won two. The film also received the Sundance Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for Best Drama, cementing her reputation as a visionary producer.
Her NYC-based multimedia production company, Cortés Filmworks, produces scripted and unscripted projects. A graduate of Yale University, Cortés is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the Directors Guild of America (DGA). She serves on the boards of Film at Lincoln Center; Independent Television Service (ITVS); and Women Make Movies. Cortés also sits on the Jacob Burns Film Center Industry Advisory Committee and serves as the director representative to the DGA Focus on Women Committee. In 2025 she was awarded the prestigious Muse Award by New York Women In Film & Television, and the DGA She Persisted Award.
