Daisy von Scherler Mayer is an American film and television director. She has directed the feature films Party Girl, Madeline, The Guru and Some Girl(s). Her TV directing credits include: Yellowjackets, The Last Thing He Told Me, Invasion, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Shining Vale, Inventing Anna, Made for Love, The Walking Dead, Bosch, Get Shorty, Ray Donovan, House of Lies, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Halt and Catch Fire, Mozart in the Jungle, Orange is the New Black, Nurse Jackie, Shameless and Mad Men. Her first film, critically acclaimed Party Girl, debuted at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, launching the career of "indie queen" Parker Posey and leading to a Fox TV series. In 2023, a 4K Restoration Blu-Ray of Party Girl played on the Criterion Channel and led to a theatrical re-release of this "cult classic" in art houses across the US, Canada and the UK. Party Girl screened at the Museum of Modern Art and BAM in NY. In 2025, in celebration of Party Girl’s 30th anniversary, the film was re-released in theaters for a second time in the US, Canada, UK and Japan. In 2026, the Berlinale honored Party Girl by featuring it in the film festival's Retrospective section.
After directing Party Girl, von Scherler Mayer helmed a film adaptation of the classic children's book Madeline, which starred Oscar winner Frances McDormand. She followed this with the Bollywood-influenced comedy The Guru, starring Heather Graham and Marisa Tomei, for Working Title Films. She returned to her indie roots with a low budget adaptation of Neil LaBute's play Some Girl(s), which starred Adam Brody, Emily Watson, Zoe Kazan and Kristen Bell.
As a television director, von Scherler Mayer has directed hour-long dramas and half-hour comedies across platforms, including: HBO, Showtime, AMC, Amazon, Netflix, AppleTV, ABC, NBC and CBS. She has also served as Executive Producer / Producing Director on two streaming series; Made for Love on HBO Max and recently, The Last Thing He Told Me, starring Jennifer Garner, for Apple TV. Currently, von Scherler Mayer is directing two episodes of Apple TV's epic sci-fi series, Foundation, based on the Isaac Asimov books.
In 2019, von Scherler Mayer received a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media for her work on The Walking Dead. A native New Yorker, she worked backstage at the Delacorte Theater as a teen and in her early 20s was a production assistant for Sidney Lumet and Mira Nair. She trained at the Williamstown Theater Festival, Circle in the Square and the Atlantic Theater Company. A graduate of Wesleyan University, von Scherler Mayer received High Honors in Theater and studied film with Jeanine Basinger. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, film and TV composer David Carbonara. They have two daughters.