Emma Tammi

Tammi was born in Middletown, Connecticut, and raised in New York City, with both of her parents being actors and graduated from Wesleyan University.^[1] She is of Finnish descent through her father, Tom Tammi [fi], who immigrated to the United States from Finland as a child with his family in 1949.^[2][3] She interned with Robert Altman.^[1]

In 2014, Tammi co-directed Fair Chase, a documentary about long-distance running, with Alex Cullen. In 2016, she co-directed Election Day: Lens Across America with Henry Jacobsen, which she described as her "first horror film".^[4]

In January 2017, at the Sundance Film Festival, producer Chris Alender, who also produced Fair Chase, approached Tammi with a script for what would eventually become The Wind, her solo feature debut.^[4][5] The Wind premiered in 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival.^[5] It received mostly positive reviews, with Variety calling it a "hugely promising debut", and RogerEbert.com calling Tammi "commendably unsparing", though some critics found the narrative thin.^[6][7][8]

In 2022, Jason Blum approached Tammi about directing a film adaptation of the Five Nights at Freddy's video game series. She had not previously played the games.^[9] In October that year, Variety announced Tammi's involvement.^[10] Five Nights at Freddy's premiered in 2023 to positive fan reaction and grossed $297 million at the box office, as well as being Blumhouse's biggest ever opening weekend.^[11][12] This also makes it one of the highest grossing films ever directed by a woman. It received mixed-to-negative reviews, though some critics praised aspects of Tammi's direction, with RogerEbert.com saying the best parts "reflect Tammi's attention to evocative details".^{[13][14][15][16]}

In 2024, a sequel, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was announced, with Tammi returning.^[11] The film was released on December 5, 2025.^[11]

Documentary film

Feature film

Television