Xochitl Gonzalez received her MFA in Directing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, where she was an Edie and Lew Wasserman Fellow. She is a recipient of the Emerging Latina Filmmaker Grant from Women in Film/General Motors. Her television pilot The VA Spa has been optioned by FOX Broadcasting as part of their FOX Diversity Writers Program. Her feature script The (Mostly) True Story of the Crazy, Fu@ked up Sh^t I Did at Uni High was a finalist for Tribeca All Access and was selected to participate in the FIND Screenwriters Lab.

Gonzalez has directed many short films and documentaries, including two award-winning narrative shorts, Countdown and Stuck, both shot on 35mm. Her films have been accorded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award, a Clifton Webb Award, and three UC Regent Awards. Her films have screened on KCET’s Fine Cut series and at film festivals across the country, including Film Independent P:I Showcase, Newport Beach Film Festival, San Diego Film Festival, Sidewalk Moving Pictures Film Festival, and the LA International Short Film Festival. She is currently submitting to festivals a short film she wrote and directed, Miracle; and she is consulting on a documentary, Sufrimiento Sin Fronteras: The Bracero Program, that connects the recent debate about the guest work program with the history of the Bracero Program, where hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers were recruited to labor in U.S. agriculture and railroads during and after WWII.