Tamara Jenkins facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tamara Jenkins
Jenkins in 2013
Born	(1962-05-02) May 2, 1962 (age 63) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Film director screenwriter actress
Years active	1991–present
Spouse(s)	Jim Taylor ​ (m. 2002)​
Children	1

Tamara Jenkins (born May 2, 1962) is an American filmmaker. She writes and directs movies. Sometimes, she also acts in them. She is well known for her films Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Private Life (2018), and The Savages (2007). She was even nominated for an Academy Award for The Savages.

Early Life and Education

Tamara Jenkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Lillian and Manuel Jenkins. Her father was Jewish, and her mother was Italian American. After her parents divorced, her father raised Tamara and her three brothers. They moved to California.

The family lived in Beverly Hills for a while. Tamara went to Beverly Hills High School for about a year and a half.

In the 1980s, Jenkins moved to New York City. She performed in many plays and musicals. These included popular shows like Chicago, Les Miserables, and Cats. She also performed in a Broadway show called My Fair Lady.

In the 1990s, she went to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. There, she studied filmmaking. She also attended the Sundance Institute, which helps new filmmakers.

Her Filmmaking Career

Jenkins started her film career with a short movie. It was called Fugitive Love and came out in 1991. This film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Later, she made another short film in 1993 called Family Remains. It won a special award at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival.

Slums of Beverly Hills

Her first full-length movie was Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). She wrote and directed this film. It was partly based on her own life growing up in Beverly Hills in the 1970s. The movie is a comedy about a family that moves around a lot in Los Angeles.

To make the film look real, the team used old photos Jenkins had from her time at Beverly Hills High School. Famous actors like Alan Arkin, Natasha Lyonne, and Marisa Tomei starred in the movie. Slums of Beverly Hills was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards.

After this film, Jenkins took a break from making movies for almost ten years. During this time, she worked on other projects. She directed a play called A Likely Story in 2003.

The Savages

Jenkins then started working on her next film, The Savages (2007). She got the idea for this movie from her experiences with her grandmother and father. Both of them had dementia and needed care. The film is a mix of sad and funny moments. It's about a family dealing with their father's illness.

The movie was made with a small budget and filmed quickly. It starred Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The Savages was a big success with critics. It was shown at many film festivals, including Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival. Jenkins was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her writing.

Private Life

After The Savages, it took Jenkins eleven years to make her third movie. This film was Private Life (2018). Jenkins has said that it can be harder for women directors to make movies as quickly as men.

Private Life was also written by Jenkins. It starred Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Molly Shannon, and Kayli Carter. The film was released in theaters and on Netflix in 2018. The story is about a couple trying to have a child. It is based on Jenkins' own experiences. Rolling Stone magazine called it a "tender but unflinching portrait of a couple in the throes of a midlife crisis." The movie received high praise and was nominated for awards.

Other Work and Personal Life

Besides films, Tamara Jenkins has also written essays for magazines. She has directed plays and worked on projects to help young people. She also directed public service announcements for Amnesty International.

Jenkins is married to Jim Taylor. He is also a screenwriter. He won an Academy Award for the movie Sideways. They got married in 2002. They have one daughter and live in NYC as of 2019^[update]. Tamara and Jim also worked together. They co-wrote the screenplay for the 2018 film Juliet, ....

Filmography

Feature films

Short films

Actress Roles

• Cheap Flight (1996)
• Happy Accidents (2000)
• Love in the Time of Money (2002)

Awards and Nominations