Tamara Jenkins Movies and Career Information

Tamara Jenkins (born May 2, 1962) is an American screenwriter, actress and director. She is best known for her two feature films, Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) and The Savages (2007). Tamara Jenkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After her parents divorced, her father, a car salesman and former nightclub owner, took custody of her and her three brothers. She lived in Beverly Hills with her father and brothers and attended Beverly Hills High for a year and a half. A stage actor and a performance artist in New York's East Village during the 1980s, she enrolled in the Graduate Filmmaking program at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts in the '90s. Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship for filmmaking, Jenkins also attended the Sundance Institute Screenwriting and Filmmakers Lab. Jenkins began her short career with a film, 1991's Fugitive Love, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Afterwards she completed a congressional mandate associated with PBS to bring diverse programming to public television, that was funded by the Independent Television Service. Another black and white short film, 1993's Family Remains, followed, which earned her early acclaim;