Studied painting and received her undergraduate BFA at The Cooper Union in New York City.
Patty Jenkins is an American film director and screenwriter. She is best known for directing the 2017 film Wonder Woman, which became the highest-grossing film directed by a woman.
Jenkins was born in 1971 in Victorville, California. Her father was a Air Force pilot and her mother was a homemaker. She has two older sisters. Jenkins graduated from high school in 1989 and then attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
Jenkins began her career as a director with the short film Monster, which won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2003. She then directed episodes of television shows such as Arrested Development, Entourage, and The Killing. In 2017, she directed the film Wonder Woman, which grossed over $821 million at the box office.
Jenkins is married to Sam Sheridan, with whom she has two sons.
General Info
Full Name
Patty Jenkins
Date Of Birth
July 23, 1971
Profession
Screenwriter, Television producer, Film director, Television Director
Education
AFI Conservatory, Cooper Union
Nationality
American
Family
Spouse
Sam Sheridan
Parents
Emily Roth, William T. Jenkins
Siblings
Jessica Jenkins, Elaine Roth
Accomplishments
Awards
Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series
Nominations
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay, DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television Film/Miniseries, Robert Award for Best American Film
Movies
Wonder Woman, Monster, Five, Velocity Rules, Just Drive
[on Kodak's new Super 8 camera] People like to think that digital mediums can do anything film can do, nowadays, but that simply isn't true. Digital is great for certain things, but it is still different. There are plenty of looks, feelings and qualities that only film can do, and you simply cannot capture digitally. [2016]
2
I really understand visuals in a way that I didn't before, which is by no means to say I'm a master at all. It's only to say that by getting to try out a bunch of different styles, and different lenses, my understanding has become more fluid.
3
[re work of directors Kazan, Kubrick, Scorsese] Those guys are great at the tension of the unknown. You don't know where the story is going, and you're not made to feel comfortable or safe.
4
I was into photography and music probably more than anything. I still think probably music is my real love. I think that it's listening to music that made me want to be a filmmaker. When I was in film school, the second I sat down at a Steenbeck with film that I had just shot and put in music to it, that was it. Instantaneously, I couldn't get enough of it, and it had nothing to do with career or want or desire. I liked to sit there and do that twenty-four hours a day. I was like, 'I can't stop doing this. This is it.'
Facts
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Fact
1
Member of the 'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) since 2016.
2
Traveled back to her hometown of Lawrence, Kansas with buddy Steve Perry (lead singer of Journey) to lecture at the University of Kansas on her film, Monster (2003). [April 2004]
3
Is related to Sir Richard Burton. Her father, William Jenkins, was Burton's second cousin.
4
In pursuit of writing Monster (2003), Jenkins corresponded with convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who left Jenkins all of her personal letters before Wuornos was executed in Florida.
5
Took a year off from her career to give birth to her son before returning to direct pilot of The Killing (2011).
6
She has two sisters. Her older sister, Elaine Roth, is professor of Film Studies at Indiana University South Bend, and her younger sister, Jessica Jenkins, assisted on the set of Monster (2003).
7
The daughter of a distinguished U.S.A.F. F4 fighter pilot who received the silver star while serving in the Vietnam war. During that time, Jenkins and her family lived in Cambodia and Thailand.
8
Studied painting and received her undergraduate BFA at The Cooper Union in New York City.
9
She attended the director's program at the American Film Institute.
