Lauren Noll is an L.A. based actor-director from the mountains of East Tennessee. Her feature directorial debut, SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT, is a female-driven ensemble comedy highlighting three women navigating the tensions of their cross-cultural relationships and the pressures of modern life, friendship, and womanhood. It will premiere at SXSW 2026. Hailing from a rich background in theatre, she earned her graduate degree in Acting at Harvard’s American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) and the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) before her focus pivoted toward film. Lauren first stepped behind the camera with the short drama HONOR, an intimate, autobiographically inspired story about coming of age, coming out, and facing expulsion from Brigham Young University. The film earned multiple awards and launched her new path as a filmmaker. She followed this short debut with GEN V, which began an ongoing creative partnership with actor-writer Dalia Rooni and secured the pair a development deal with Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe. The duo went on to make CLEAN SLATE, a recipient of the Collaborative Film Challenge Grand Jury Prize and a grant from Blackmagic Design, before embarking to make their first feature film SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT together. Most recently, Lauren co-wrote and starred in the Oscar Qualified short film, THE HEART OF TEXAS, which screened at more than 75 festivals worldwide and earned Lauren a dozen acting awards on the festival circuit for her performance as Janie May, a down-on-her-luck country singer caught between a last shot at her dream and the crushing responsibility she bears for another dreamer she collides with on her path. Across all of her work, Lauren is drawn to intimate, character-driven stories about ordinary people searching for grace and meaning in chaotic worlds. Her love for actors and their craft is undeniably infused into her directing style. She approaches each project with honesty, humor, and deep compassion, crafting stories that reveal the beauty and hilarity of being human.