Dretzin began her career by producing and directing episodes of Frontline for PBS.[2] The October 1999 episode directed and produced by Dretzin, The Lost Children of Rockdale County, which focused on an outbreak of syphilis among teenagers in Atlanta, won a Peabody Award.[3]
In 1996, Dretzin co-founded the production company Ark Media alongside Barak Goodman.[4] Dretzin has served as a producer on various projects produced by the company including Finding Your Roots for PBS,[5] Great Photo Lovely Life and Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television for HBO.[6][7]
In 2017, Dretzin directed the documentary feature Far from the Tree, an adaptation of the non-fiction book of the same name by Andrew Solomon, focusing on parents of children who have down syndrome, dwarfism and autism, and had its world premiere at DOC NYC, and acquired by Sundance Selects.[8][9]
Dretzin has directed and executive produced various projects for Netflix including Who Killed Malcolm X? alongside Phil Bertelsen,[10] Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey also for Netflix, focusing on Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and its leader Warren Jeffs.[11] In 2026, Dretzin directed a companion series Trust Me: The False Prophet focusing on a cult expert and her husband immersing themselves in FLDS culture, discovering disturbing evidence against Samuel Bateman, who claims to be the successor of Jeffs.[12]