Brit Heyworth Marling was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Heidi (Johnson) and John Marling, both of whom work in real estate. She graduated from Georgetown University, with a bachelor's in
economics, and was offered a job with Goldman Sachs, which she turned
down in favour of a career as an artist.
She moved to Los Angeles to act and, after spending a couple of years
exploring the movie industry and being offered roles as "the cute
blonde in horror movies", she taught herself to write, reasoning that
the best way to get decent parts was to write them, herself. She worked
on two movies, simultaneously - one in the mornings, one in the
afternoons - and eventually both
Another Earth (2011) and
Sound of My Voice (2011)
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.