Paola Morabito is an Australian writer-director of Sicilian-Calabrian heritage whose films marry bold imagery to quick-witted emotion. A haircut changed her life: while working in a Sydney salon she met Jane Campion, became her assistant on In the Cut, then shot second-unit for Bright Star—an apprenticeship she later chronicled in the documentary Working with Jane.

Paolas short I’m the One premiered at Venice’s 69th festival, and her award-winning commercial work now spans four continents. She splits time between Australia and Los Angeles, developing the feature The History of Sisters and TV project Out of This World. Off set, you’ll find her perfecting the anchovy pasta that once earned a film-legend marriage proposal or playing ping-pong in a bathing suit and gumboots—her storytelling, like her life, never follows the usual recipe.