Noah Baumbach

Noah Baumbach
Baumbach (far right) at Berlinale 2010 for his film Greenberg
Born	(1969-09-03) September 3, 1969 (age 47) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Screenwriter, film director, producer
Years active	1995-present
Spouse(s)	Jennifer Jason Leigh (m. 2005; div. 2013)
Children	1

Noah Baumbach (born September 3, 1969) is an American independent filmmaker. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Squid and the Whale (2005) and is known for making dramatic comedies. Other acclaimed films written and directed by Baumbach include Frances Ha (2012), While We're Young (2014), and Mistress America (2015).

Baumbach, the third of four siblings, was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of novelist/film critic Jonathan Baumbach and Village Voice critic Georgia Brown. He graduated from Brooklyn's Midwood High School in 1987 and received his BA in English from Vassar College in 1991. Soon after, he briefly worked as a messenger at The New Yorker magazine. His father is Jewish and his mother is Protestant.

Baumbach made his writing and directing debut at the age of 26 with Kicking and Screaming in 1995, a comedy about four young men who graduate from college and refuse to move on with their lives. The film starred Josh Hamilton, Chris Eigeman, and Carlos Jacott and premiered in 1995 at the New York Film Festival. Baumbach was chosen as one of Newsweek's "Ten New Faces of 1996".

In 1997 he wrote and directed Mr. Jealousy, a film about a young writer so jealous about his girlfriend that he sneaks into the group therapy sessions of her ex-boyfriend to discover what kind of relationship they had. He then co-wrote (under the name Jesse Carter) and directed (under the name Ernie Fusco) the New York-set comedy of manners Highball. He co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) with Wes Anderson.