Jessica Sharzer facts for kids
Jessica Sharzer (born October 26, 1972) is an American writer, director, producer, and editor. She helps create movies and TV shows. You might know her work from the TV series The L Word and American Horror Story. She also wrote the movies Nerve (2016), Dirty Dancing (2017), and A Simple Favor (2018).
About Jessica Sharzer's Life and Work
Jessica Sharzer was born in Iowa City, Iowa, on October 26, 1972. She grew up in New York City. She went to the Horace Mann School, Wesleyan University, and later studied film at New York University (NYU).
At first, Jessica thought she would work in universities. But then she took a summer film class at the New York Film Academy. She realized she loved making films! So, she left the University of California, Berkeley, and joined NYU Film School. In 2002, she won an award called the Wasserman Award for her student film, The Wormhole.
She started her career working on film sets. She was a crew member for the movie Happiness (1998). She also worked as an assistant director on the short film Billy Twist.
In 2003, Sharzer met Paul Gutrecht. They got married in 2005. In 2004, she helped make the movie Speak. She was a co-producer, director, and co-writer for the film. This movie was based on a popular book. For Speak, she was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award and a Directors Guild of America Award. She also won the Audience Award at the Woodstock Film Festival for the movie.
In 2007, she directed an episode for the TV show The L Word on Showtime. She also wrote a TV movie in 2010 called Turn the Beat Around.
In 2011, she became a writer and supervising producer for the scary TV show American Horror Story. This show was created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. It airs on the FX channel. The Horror Writers Association gave her an award, the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Screenplay, for her episode "Afterbirth" in 2011.
In 2016, she wrote the movie Nerve, which was based on a book. She also wrote the TV musical Dirty Dancing in 2017. This was a new version of the famous 1987 movie. In 2018, she wrote the movie A Simple Favor, which was based on a novel.
