Martha Stephens (born March 12, 1984) is an American film writer and director. Her three feature films involve characters yearning for escape, and naturalistically portrayed rural settings.
Stephens was born in West Virginia and raised in eastern Kentucky. A great-niece of writer Jesse Stuart, Stephens was immersed by her family in the Appalachian storytelling tradition. She graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking, where she associated with and was influenced by Jeff Nichols and David Gordon Green, the executive producer of her third film.
Stephens' first two feature films, Passenger Pigeons (2010) and Pilgrim Song (2012), premiered at the South by Southwest festival and received several awards. Her third film, Land Ho! (2014), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and was purchased for worldwide distribution by Sony Pictures Classics.