Born: 16th July 1958
Episodes Broadcast: 2014-2015, 2017, 2023

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Rachel Talalay was chiefly raised in Baltimore, Maryland where her parents were members of the faculty at Johns Hopkins University. She became a fan of science-fiction shows like Star Trek, and then discovered Doctor Who when her parents' work took the family to her mother's native England for two years in the mid-Seventies. Back in the United States, Talalay completed a degree in applied mathematics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, during which she served as the president of the Yale Film Society. After graduating in 1980, she returned to Baltimore to take an information technology position at Johns Hopkins. Soon afterwards, Talalay discovered that cult movie director John Waters was preparing to film his 1981 satire Polyester in Baltimore. She joined the crew as a production assistant, in the process declining an opportunity to work at IBM.

Talalay moved on to a variety of junior production positions on various films, most notably 1984's horror classic A Nightmare On Elm Street and its sequels. She rose to become a producer on A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master in 1988, the same year that she produced Waters' Hairspray. Talalay was a producer on two more movies in 1990 including Cry-Baby, another collaboration with Waters. The same year, she married fellow producer Rupert Harvey, whom she had met when they both worked on 1982's Android; they would have daughters Sophie and Lucy. Keen to direct, Talalay seized the opportunity with 1991's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Ghost In The Machine -- another horror, but this time crossed with science-fiction -- followed in 1993.

By the turn of the century, Talalay's projects were variously taking her to the USA, the UK and Canada

However, 1995's poorly-received comic book adaptation Tank Girl prompted Talalay to rethink her career trajectory. She relocated to the United Kingdom, where she directed for television programmes such as Gold, Touching Evil and Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), in addition to producing the 1997 movie The Borrowers. By the turn of the century, Talalay's projects were variously taking her to the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Over the next decade, her credits included episodes of shows like Ally McBeal, Touching Evil, Terminal City and The Dead Zone, as well as a 2006 adaptation of The Wind In The Willows starring Mark Gatiss.

Around 2010, Talalay became a professor of film production at the University of British Columbia, a position she would hold for the next several years. Her television work continued unabated, encompassing programmes like Haven and Bomb Girls. Meanwhile, Talalay had become very impressed by the 2005 relaunch of Doctor Who, and she sought a directing assignment not only through her British agent, but also via Gatiss, who had both written for, and acted in, the series. Finally, in 2014, she was offered Dark Water / Death In Heaven, the two-part finale to Peter Capaldi's debut season as the Twelfth Doctor. For the crucial scene in which Missy and the Cybermen confronted the Doctor and Clara Oswald outside St Paul's Cathedral, Talalay's daughters appeared as extras.

Having proved enormously popular with the cast and crew, Talalay was asked back to make the last two episodes for each of Capaldi's remaining seasons. Amongst them was Heaven Sent, the unprecedented adventure in which virtually the only characters were the Doctor and the mute Veil. Finally, Talalay directed 2017's Twice Upon A Time, which culminated in the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration. At the same time, she had become a popular choice for various super-hero programmes and comic book adaptations, including The Flash and Riverdale. Amongst Talalay's other credits during the 2010s were Sherlock and American Gods.

In 2020, Talalay directed her first movie in a quarter of a century with A Babysitter's Guide To Monster Hunting, alongside television shows such as Superman & Lois and Quantum Leap. She also returned to Doctor Who to direct The Star Beast, a special episode starring David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, which formed part of the programme's sixtieth-anniversary celebrations in November 2023.