Roxy Sorkin is an American writer and director who first gained wider notice through the short films Vodka and Swollen. Both reached major film festivals. In 2026, she moved to a much bigger project with Hot Year, her first feature film. The movie stars Kathryn Newton, Storm Reid, Cole Sprouse, Dove Cameron, J. Smith-Cameron, and Owen Painter.
She is also the daughter of screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin and Julia Bingham. In this article, you will learn about Roxy Sorkin’s age, family, film-school years, festival work, and the career step that Hot Year marks for her.
Roxy Sorkin Is Building a Career Behind the Camera
Roxy Sophie Sorkin was born in November 2000. She is 25 in 2026. She is the only daughter of Aaron Sorkin and his former wife, Julia Bingham.
Her father is known for The West Wing, The Social Network, Steve Jobs, and A Few Good Men. Roxy grew up close to film and television, but she did not build a public career around her family name alone.
Her own credits include writing, directing, producing, acting, and work on the visual side of film. That broad start matters. She learned through short projects before moving into a feature.
Her path has also been steady. Student work came first. Then came Tribeca. Sundance followed. Now she is directing a full-length film with a well-known cast.
Film School Helped Her Find Her Own Style
Roxy studied film and television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. NYU lists her as a 2023 BFA graduate from its Film and Television program.
She was already making short films while she was a student. One early project was Breastmilk. It became a finalist at NYU’s Fusion Film Festival in 2021.
The film was also shown by the National Film Festival for Talented Youth. The festival called it a love letter to Sorkin’s mother. It also noted the way the film moved between comedy and drama.
That mix later became a clear part of her work. Her films can be funny and tense at the same time. They often place young people in strange moments where grief, fear, shame, or bad choices push the story forward.
Film school gave her a place to test that voice before larger festivals started paying attention.
Vodka Brought Her to Tribeca
Vodka became an important early step in 2022.
Roxy wrote and directed the 13-minute short. It follows a 16-year-old girl who is dealing with grief. On the day of her grandmother’s shiva, she drinks vodka for the first time. The story mixes loss, awkward humor, and the idea of reincarnation.
Tribeca gave Vodka its world premiere in 2022. Iris Apatow and Alexis G. Zall were part of the cast.
The film is small and personal. That is part of its strength. It does not turn grief into one long sad speech. The main character is still a teenager. She makes odd choices, uses humor, and tries to understand feelings that are too big for her.
Vodka also showed that Sorkin was not trying to make a safe calling-card film. She was more interested in a messy person than a perfect one.
Swollen Made Her Voice Much Clearer
Swollen pushed that style further.
The 2024 short follows two best friends after plastic surgery. A burglary goes wrong while they are still swollen, bloody, and covered in bandages. They should call the police. Instead, they worry about being seen in that state.
Sorkin wrote and directed the film. She also acts in it with Lily Rosenthal.
The idea is silly on purpose, but the film treats the women’s panic as real. That lets the story work as both horror and comedy.
Swollen had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. It also played at Beyond Fest. In 2025, Sundance selected it for the Midnight Short Film Program.
That run gave Sorkin a stronger place in the indie film world. Tribeca had already shown her work. Sundance brought another major stage and a new group of viewers.
The film is only 13 minutes long, but it carries a lot of energy. It uses friendship, fear, vanity, crime, and visual jokes. It does not stop to explain each idea. The characters simply keep making the night worse.
That pace helps explain why Swollen became such an important film in her early career.
Her Films Focus on Young People Under Pressure
Roxy Sorkin has worked in more than one genre, but her stories share a clear interest.
She likes young characters who make fast choices when emotions are high.
Vodka follows a teenager trying to deal with grief. Swollen follows two friends whose fear of looking bad becomes part of a dangerous night. Hot Year moves into revenge, loyalty, trauma, and friendship.
The films do not all feel the same. Vodka is closer to a coming-of-age drama. Swollen is a horror comedy. Hot Year is a coming-of-age revenge thriller.
The link is the emotional mess.
Her characters are not calm people who sit down and explain what they learned. They act first. They get embarrassed. They protect friends. They make poor choices. Then they have to live with what comes next.
That gives her work a fast, young feel without turning the people into jokes.
Hot Year Is Her Biggest Project So Far
Hot Year marks a major jump in 2026.
Roxy wrote the film and is directing it. Wagner Entertainment describes Hot Year as her feature debut. The company says the story blends coming-of-age drama, true crime, friendship, and revenge.
The story takes place during a harsh summer in a small Pacific Northwest town. Childhood friends Jack and Quinn plan revenge on an ex-boyfriend. The plan turns violent. The two then have to face the result while their friendship starts to crack.
The cast gives the film far more reach than her short work. Kathryn Newton, Storm Reid, Cole Sprouse, Dove Cameron, J. Smith-Cameron, and Owen Painter are attached.
The project also has strong indie film support. Christine Vachon of Killer Films is among the producers. Jordan Wagner is also producing, along with producers tied to Entertainment 360 and other partners.
Production was set for Oklahoma in May 2026. By June, industry listings showed the film in post-production.
For Sorkin, the scale is new. A feature needs more shooting days, more cast, more crew, and a story that must hold for a full movie.
It is also a clear reward for the work that came before. The short films gave her a place to show what kind of director she wanted to be. Hot Year gives her room to test that voice over a much longer story.
The Aaron Sorkin Connection Explains Only Part of Her Story
People often find Roxy Sorkin because of her father.
That makes sense. Aaron Sorkin is one of the best-known screenwriters in American film and television. Roxy also appeared with him at public events when she was younger.
Still, their work has a very different feel.
Aaron Sorkin is famous for long talks, sharp arguments, newsrooms, courts, and people who fight through ideas. Roxy’s short films lean more on mood, images, genre, awkward humor, and young women in strange trouble.
That difference matters.
Her family link gave her early contact with the film world, but it does not tell us why Swollen looks the way it does. It also does not explain the move from a grief story like Vodka to a revenge thriller like Hot Year.
The better way to understand her career is to follow the work itself.
She went through film school. She made student films. She reached Tribeca twice. Swollen went on to Sundance. Then she moved into a first feature with a larger cast and strong producers.
That is now the main story around her name.
Her NYU Years Still Connect to Her Work Today
Roxy’s time at NYU is easy to see in her career path.
NYU identifies her as a 2023 graduate of the Film and Television program. The school also lists Swollen among the work of Tisch alumni at Tribeca in 2024 and Sundance in 2025.
Before those festival runs, she had already worked on student films and in more than one film role.
That broad base matters for a director.
A director does not only talk to actors. The job also means working with camera, art, costume, sound, editing, and production teams. Sorkin’s early credits show that she has spent time around several parts of that process.
She has also acted in her own work. That gives her another view of what a scene feels like from the other side of the camera.
Hot Year Will Show How Her Style Works at Feature Length
A strong short film can show a director’s taste very quickly. A feature asks for more.
Hot Year has to hold its tone, characters, and tension for a full movie. That makes it the biggest test of Sorkin’s work so far.
The story also fits ideas she has already used.
It centers on friendship. Young women are under stress. A bad plan grows into something much worse. Dark humor sits close to danger.
Those themes make Hot Year feel like a natural next step rather than a sudden change.
The main difference is size.
Swollen could build its whole world in 13 minutes. Hot Year has to give its people more depth and keep the story alive for much longer.
If the film reaches a wide audience, it may also change how people first learn her name. Instead of “Aaron Sorkin’s daughter,” more viewers may meet her first as the writer and director of Hot Year.
Where Roxy Sorkin Stands in 2026
Roxy Sorkin is still early in her career, but she has already crossed several key steps.
She went from film school to major short-film festivals. Vodka reached Tribeca in 2022. Swollen reached Tribeca in 2024 and Sundance in 2025. In 2026, Hot Year became her first feature project.
That is a clear rise in scale.
She is not building her name through constant public attention or personal-life headlines. The strongest reason to follow her is the work.
Her films show a taste for dark humor, young friendship, emotional chaos, and genre. Hot Year now gives her the chance to show whether that style can carry a full feature.
For another story about someone from a famous film family who built a creative career behind the scenes, read our profile of Molly Elizabeth Brolin.
