Elizabeth Freya Garbus (born April 11, 1970) is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable documentaries Garbus has made are The Farm: Angola, USA, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Love, Marilyn, What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Becoming Cousteau. She is co-founder and co-director of the New York City-based documentary film production company Story Syndicate.

Garbus grew up in New York City. She is the daughter of civil rights attorney Martin Garbus and writer, therapist, and social worker Ruth Meitin Garbus. Her family is Jewish.

In 1992, Garbus graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in history and semiotics from Brown University.

While in high school, Garbus made a documentary about students' last day of school. At Brown she took classes in video production in addition to her major subjects.

After college, Garbus worked as an intern at Miramax. She eventually landed a job working for filmmaker Jonathan Stack.

They co-directed The Farm: Angola, USA, which was nominated for a 1998 Academy Award. The film garnered multiple awards, including the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and two Emmy awards.

In 1998, Garbus co-founded an independent documentary production company, Moxie Firecracker Films, with fellow Brown University alumna Rory Kennedy. They combined the names of each woman's previous production company for their joint one: Kennedy's was called Moxie and Garbus’ was called Firecracker.

In 2002, Garbus' film The Execution of Wanda Jean was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.