Barry Jenkins (director)
| Barry Jenkins | |
|---|---|
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Jenkins in 2009
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| Born |
November 19, 1979 Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Residence | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Florida State University |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Notable work |
Medicine for Melancholy Moonlight |
Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American film director and writer based in Los Angeles, known for his films Medicine for Melancholy (2008) and Moonlight (2016). Moonlight received dozens of accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, the latter of which Jenkins shared with story writer Tarell Alvin McCraney. Jenkins is a member of the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.
Jenkins was born in 1979 in Liberty City, Miami, and has three older siblings. His father died when he was 12, and had earlier separated from his mother, believing that Jenkins was not his biological son. During his childhood, Jenkins was raised by another woman in an overcrowded apartment. He attended Miami Northwestern Senior High School, where he played on the school football team. Jenkins later studied film at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Jenkins's breakout film was Medicine for Melancholy, a low-budget independent feature released in 2008, starring Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins. The film was well received by critics.
After the success of his previous film, Jenkins wrote an epic for Focus Features about “Stevie Wonder and time travel” and an adaptation to the James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk, both of which never entered production. He later worked as a carpenter and co-founded an advertising company called Strike Anywhere. In 2011, he wrote and directed Remigration, a sci-fi short film about gentrification. Jenkins became a writer for HBO's The Leftovers, about which he commented, "I didn't get to do much."
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