About Maggie

Over the course of her career, Maggie Hadleigh-West has been internationally recognized as an activist, independent filmmaker, public speaker and the founder of YoMaggie Productions, LLC. She has been writing, directing and producing in film and television since 1991. Her work is often considered to be controversial, provocative, radical and irreverent. Through her company and the mediums of film, television, and public speaking, Maggie focuses on developing social justice projects related to various forms of “violence”, which have been previously unrecognized or under-examined.

Maggie recently completed her fifth film and website project, Sick to Death!, which explores the testing, diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disease and the medical industries worldwide failure to attend to the nearly 750 million individuals that suffer from thyroid diseases. Sick to Death! received three merit awards, prior to the world premier at the New Orleans Film Festival.

Her fourth film, and second feature documentary Player Hating: A Love Story which follows the life of hip-hop artist Half-a-Mill as he struggles to escape ghetto obscurity for fame. This intimate and controversial film explores issues of race, “thug life”, cultural / government neglect, the far-reaching impact of extreme trauma and cultural culpability.

In her well known feature length documentary, War Zone, about the public harassment of women, Maggie turns the lens of her camera on her harassers, in much the same way that they turn their aggression on her. Using a combination of black and white and color images, she creates a film that is immediate, disturbing, beautiful and historic.

Maggie has appeared on numerous national and international television and radio programs including ABC’s news magazine show 20/20, The Today Show, CBS News, The Oprah Show, Lifetime Live, Oxygen Media, BBC, NPR, and CNN. Articles on Maggie have been published in such periodicals as USA Today, New York Times, San Francisco Examiner, New York Observer, Chicago Tribune, Village Voice, New York Daily News, Ms. Magazine, Glamour Magazine, London Times, South African Elle, the Swedish papers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, Australia’s Exposure Magazine and more.

Maggie Hadleigh-West is a 2017 Impact Doc Awards winner, a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow Award Winner, 2010 Indie Fest: Audience Impact Merit Award Winner, 2010 Accolade Merit Award Winner, 2009, 2006, and 2005 Alcyon Foundation Fellow, a 2004 New York State Council on the Arts Fellow, 2001 University of Louisville Distinguished Professor Nominee, 2000 Rockefeller Fellow Nominee and a 1998 Berlin Film Festival Caligari Nominee.

Maggie’s production company was originally formed in New York City, where Maggie lived for twenty-four years. She currently resides in New Orleans, where she has deep roots and plans to remain forever.