Jenée LaMarque (born February 2, 1980, in

West Covina, California West Covina is a suburban city in Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most popul ...

) is an American writer and director, known for ''

The Pretty One ''The Pretty One'' is a 2013 comedy drama film directed and written by Jenée LaMarque. The film stars Zoe Kazan, Jake Johnson, Ron Livingston, Sterling Beaumon and John Carroll Lynch. Plot Laurel and Audrey (Zoe Kazan) are identical twins. Alt ...

'' (2013), ''Spoonful'' (2012) and '' The Feels'' (2018).

Career

LaMarque acted in local theatre while growing up in

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popul ...

. She got a degree in English with a creative writing emphasis in poetry from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Screenwriting proved to be the combination of these two interests. She took

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

extension classes in Screenwriting, before getting her MFA in Screenwriting from the

AFI Conservatory The AFI Conservatory is a private not-for-profit graduate film school in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles. Students (called "Fellows") learn from the masters in a collaborative, hands-on production environment with an emphasis on st ...

. At AFI she wrote ''The Pretty One''. LaMarque wrote and directed the short ''Spoonful'', which premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in 2012. The ''Pretty One'' script was on The Black List in 2011, which helped LaMarque enlist top talent like

Zoe Kazan Zoe Swicord Kazan (; born September 9, 1983) is an American actress, playwright, and screenwriter. She made her acting debut in the film ''Swordswallowers and Thin Men'' (2003) and later appeared in films such as '' The Savages'' (2007), ''Revol ...

playing both twins, and

Jake Johnson Mark Jake Johnson Weinberger (born May 28, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, film producer and screenwriter best known for his role as Nick Miller in the Fox sitcom ''New Girl'' (2011–2018), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Ch ...

, who plays her love interest. LaMarque was a finalist for the Tribeca Film Festival's award "The Nora" in 2013. ''The Pretty One'' was nominated for the 2014 Best Movie By a Woman by the

Women Film Critics Circle The Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) is a film critics Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in ...

. ''The Pretty One'' won Best Narrative Feature and Jenée won Best Director at the 2013 Savannah Film Festival. Jenée's second feature The Feels starring Constance Wu, Angela Trimbur and Ever Mainard premiered in competition at The 2017 Seattle Film Festival. The Feels’ Ever Mainard won Best Actress at the 2017 Outfest and won Best Narrative Feature at the 2017 NewFest.

Filmography

Film

Television

Personal life

LaMarque has been married to

Julian Wass Julian Wass (born November 10, 1981) is an American television writer, director, film composer, producer, and electronic musician from Los Angeles, California. He is the son of actors Janet Margolin and Ted Wass. Music for films Julian Wass first ...

since November 4, 2006. They have two children. She is Mexican American.

References