LOS ANGELES — Elizabeth Banks doesn’t mince words. Why bother, when you’re trying to get things done? Sitting in her office, in a bungalow on the Universal Studios lot here, the platform heels she wore for a photo shoot replaced with black oxfords, Ms. Banks, 43, was no-nonsense when asked why she transformed herself from a comic star into a producer and director.

“I was a frustrated actress,” she said. “I was bored.”

Now she is busy. Brownstone Productions, the 10-year-old company she started with her husband, Max Handelman, has development deals with nearly every major studio, and projects percolating for film and TV. She’s a founder of WhoHaha, an online platform for female comedians. And she’s still performing, most recently playing herself as Larry David’s girlfriend on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Another installment of her as Gail, the sweetly vicious a cappella commentator, arrives on Dec. 22 with “Pitch Perfect 3”; Brownstone developed and produced the “Pitch” franchise.

Ms. Banks’s hat trick – actress, filmmaker, business maven – remains rare for women in Hollywood, where she has quietly become an industry force, even while audiences mostly know her as the gaudy Effie Trinket in “The Hunger Games.” Her directorial debut, “Pitch Perfect 2” in 2015, was made for a reported $30 million and opened at No. 1, grossing more than $280 million globally. By outperforming expectations, it instantly put her in a league with very few women (and leapfrogged some men). She’s now on deck to direct and produce a new “Charlie’s Angels” film for Sony, from an idea she conceived.

That many of her coming projects focus on women is equal parts feminism – “I’m fighting the male narrative in all of our lives,” she said – and expedience. When selling ideas, she said, “you’re always looking for yes. It’s easier to get yes, when you’re a woman, if you work on female-led films.”