Alison Anders

Allison Anders
Allison Anders at the 61st Annual Peabody Awards
Born	Mary Allison Anders (1954-11-16) November 16, 1954 (age 62) Ashland, Kentucky, United States
Alma mater	UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
Occupation	Director Screenwriter
Years active	1987–present
Known for	Gas Food Lodging Mi Vida Loca Grace of My Heart
Children	3
Parent(s)	Alberta Steed Bob Anders

Allison Anders (born November 16, 1954) is an American independent film director whose films include Gas Food Lodging, Mi Vida Loca and Grace of My Heart. Anders has collaborated with fellow UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television graduate Kurt Voss and has also worked as a television director. Anders' films have been shown at the Cannes International Film Festival and at the Sundance Film Festival. She has been awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant as well as a Peabody Award.

Anders was born in Ashland, Kentucky to mother Alberta "Rachel" Anders (née Steed) and father Robert "Bob" Anders. She has four sisters, one of whom, Luanna Anders, starred in her first film, Border Radio. One of her sisters is Dominique Steed née Du Bois, the daughter of Louis Ernesto Gomez-Moncalleno Du Bois.

Her paternal side has ancestry that traces back to the Southern Hatfield family and, more distantly, to George Washington's spy, Caleb Brewster, while her maternal side includes another Washington spy, Abraham Woodhull.

When Anders was 4 years old, her father abandoned the family. Anders' mother and father were divorced when she was 5. After her mother moved her and her sisters to Los Angeles, Anders suffered a mental breakdown at the age of 15 and was hospitalized. When she came out of the psychiatric ward, she was placed into foster care but ran away. She hitchhiked across the country, at one point ending up in jail. After turning 17, Anders dropped out of her Los Angeles high school and moved back to Kentucky. She later moved to London with the man who fathered her first child.