Martha Coolidge, the first female president of the Director's Guild of America, began her career in Hollywood as a lonely idealist. Her debut in mainstream movie direction, for 1983's Valley Girl , was a low budget teen comedy about a growing pop-movement in southern California. Valley Girl tells the tale of a popular, shallow, clothes-crazy young woman, played by Deborah Foreman, who falls flippantly in love with a Hollywood punkster, played by a fresh faced Nicolas Cage. The film boasted a smashing soundtrack, partially due to the lure of the valley girl vernacular. Frank Zappa, the counter culture icon of the 1960's and 70's co-wrote and performed the title track with his daughter, Moon Unit. The film became an instant cult classic and garnered acclaim for Coolidge's portrayal of the comedic star-crossed lovers.

Two years later, in 1985 Coolidge tried her hand at big budget film making, Real Genius, with Val Kilmer in his first starring role.

The daughter of an architecture professor at Yale, Coolidge grew up in New Haven with weighty artistic ambitions. During the 1960s, she joined a small acting troupe in Cheshire, called the Blackfriars, and toyed with the idea of folk singing before going to the Rhode Island School of Design. There she was introduced to filmmaking through animation. Following her undergraduate work, Coolidge traveled to Canada and worked briefly on documentaries. She continued her education at New York University 's School of Visual Arts and Film and Television Graduate School, now the Tisch School .

Coolidge's first two forays into film were personal documentaries. In 1972, she wrote and produced, “David: Off and On,” a documentary addressing her brother's experiences as a drug addict. She produced “Not a Pretty Picture” in 1975, a fictional film based on a personal experience with the trauma of date rape. Intent on pursuing a career in film, Coolidge acknowledged that in college and graduate school she had no female role models in the field of cinematic or television direction. Directors were always male and the profession had a deeply rooted masculine hierarchy.

Coolidge has a practiced awareness for the impact of gender on characters and images in film. The invisibility of female directors never dissuaded her from the field, but inspired her to undertake character driven films, focusing on women's issues. One of her most acclaimed films, Rambling Rose, deals with sexual exploitation and gendered stereotyping. She has also bucked gender biases outside the studio. In March of 2002, Coolidge was elected the first female president of the Director's Guild of America in its 66 year history.

In recent years, Coolidge has been concentrating on work for television as well as film. She directed the Emmy award winning film, “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” and “If These Walls Could Talk 2” for HBO. Coolidge's most recent projects include films directed towards young women. The Prince and Me, staring Julia Stiles is an inspiring story of young woman in the throes of a romance, determined to maintain her independence. Her most recently completed film, Material Girls, staring Hillary and Haylie Duff, was just released to cinemas in August of 2006.