Co-founder / Director / Producer
Marissa Aroy
Marissa Aroy is an Emmy Award-winning Filipino American director whose work spans live-action drama and documentary. Based in Ireland, she is increasingly focused on narrative directing, bringing more than two decades of visual storytelling experience to character-driven work exploring identity, belonging and whose stories are allowed to take centre stage.
Aroy recently directed the short dramas The Parting and Birthday Swim. The Parting, supported by Ireland’s National Talent Academies, premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival in 2026. Birthday Swim, supported through Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown First Frames, continues her exploration of intimate, culturally specific stories through live-action drama. She is currently preparing to direct the independent feature Liquid Self, which begins filming in Ireland in autumn 2026. Set around a Dublin theatre production of Yeats’s Cathleen Ní Houlihan, the film examines immigration, cultural identity, representation and the tensions that emerge over who has the authority to tell Irish stories.
Her move into narrative drama also includes work in television. Aroy worked on the AMC+ series Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale, initially shadowing director Hannah Quinn before going on to serve as Second Unit Director. She has also directed narrative work in the Philippines and the radio drama The Morrigan in Ireland.
Aroy began her career in documentary, where her films earned international recognition. She directed Sikhs in America, which received an Emmy Award, and The Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers, an Emmy-nominated documentary about the overlooked role of Filipino farmworkers in the American labour movement. She is a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Hatsuye Yamasaki Award for Visionary Leadership from the College of William & Mary.
Alongside directing, Aroy is an educator and active member of Ireland’s screen community. She has taught at Trinity College Dublin and currently lectures in New Media Studies at the Institute of Art, Design + Technology, Dún Laoghaire (IADT). Her work within the Irish industry has included leadership roles with Irish Screen America and Women in Film and Television Ireland. She also produced the award-winning short film The Ferry, which was broadcast on RTÉ.
Based in Wicklow, Aroy continues to develop film and television projects across Ireland and internationally. Across fiction and documentary, her work connects Filipino, Irish and American experiences, with a particular interest in migration, representation, cultural memory and characters negotiating who they are within worlds that seek to define them.
Selected work
The Parting: Director
Birthday Swim: Director
How Can You Forget Me: Director of the exhibition films
The Delano Manongs: Director / Producer
Sikhs in America: Director / Producer
Frontline World: Sounds of Hope: Producer
The Morrigan: Director
Irish Screen America: Founding organiser / Deputy Director
Birds of Prey: An Exploration of Sex and Empire: In development