Miranda July

Miranda July Bio

Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, actress and author. Her body of work spans film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art, establishing her as a distinctive voice in contemporary independent cinema and literature. July has written, directed and starred in several acclaimed feature films while also building a parallel career as a published author of short stories and novels. Her collaborative projects and public art installations have further expanded her influence beyond traditional filmmaking.

Early Life and Background

Miranda July was born in Barre, Vermont, on February 15, 1974, to Lindy Hough and Richard Grossinger. Her parents were both writers who taught at Goddard College and founded North Atlantic Books, a publisher specializing in alternative health, martial arts and spiritual titles. Her father was Jewish while her mother was Protestant, and the family engaged with New Age religion and discussions about spirituality during her upbringing. July was raised in Berkeley, California, where she first began staging plays at 924 Gilman Street, a local punk rock club. She attended The College Preparatory School in Oakland for high school, a experience she later described as overwhelming.

As a teenager, July wrote and directed a play called The Lifers, which was based on her correspondence with a man incarcerated for murder. She staged the play in punk clubs throughout the Bay Area. July was encouraged to work on her short fiction by author Rick Moody during these formative years. She went on to attend the film school at University of California Santa Cruz but dropped out during her second year and relocated to Portland, Oregon, where she would begin her career in performance art.

Path to Director

After moving to Portland, Oregon, July began developing her craft through one-woman performance art shows that garnered significant attention. She was also immersed in the riot grrrl scene during this period, drawing inspiration from its do-it-yourself ethos. To create greater opportunities for women filmmakers, she founded Big Miss Moviola in 1995, which was soon renamed Joanie4Jackie. The project functioned as a free alternative distribution system for women movie-makers, connecting artists through compilation videotapes. July ran the project for seven years before handing it off to Bard College in 2003. In spring 2016, she donated an archive of Joanie4Jackie to the Getty Research Institute, comprising more than 200 titles from the 1990s and 2000s.

During the early stages of her film career, July created several experimental video projects and performances while working various jobs including waitress, tastemaker for Coca-Cola, locksmith and stripper. Her first film Atlanta appeared on the second Joanie4Jackie compilation tape. She subsequently created The Amateurist (1998), a short film in which she played both roles and which won multiple awards including the Cinematexas Best Experimental and No Budget Awards in 1999 and the San Francisco Golden Gate Award Silver Spire in 2000. Her 2000 release Nest of Tens, a 27-minute video now held in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, won the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen’s main prize in 2001.

Miranda July Career

Early Career (1995–2004)

July spent much of the 1990s developing her artistic voice through performance art, short films and music collaborations. She recorded her first EP for Kill Rock Stars in 1996 titled Margie Ruskie Stops Time with music by The Need. She released two full-length albums, 10 Million Hours A Mile in 1997 and The Binet-Simon Test in 1998, both on Kill Rock Stars. She collaborated with Calvin Johnson in his musical project Dub Narcotic Sound System and made a split EP with IQU in 1999 on Johnson’s K Records label. Her live performance work included Love Diamond (1998), her first full-length multimedia performance piece described as a live movie, and The Swan Tool, a one-woman show exploring themes of childhood trauma and adult alienation.

In 2002, July co-founded the online art project Learning to Love You More with artist Harrell Fletcher. The project invited artists to complete assignments, with submissions becoming part of exhibitions and screenings presented worldwide. Over 8,000 people participated before the website stopped accepting submissions in 2009. The project was later acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for preservation. July was recognized as one of the 25 New Faces of Indie Film in 2004, setting the stage for her feature film debut the following year.

Breakthrough (2005–2012)

July wrote, directed and starred in her first feature-length film Me and You and Everyone We Know, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The film received widespread critical acclaim for its exploration of intimate relationships through July’s distinctive blend of humor and experimental storytelling. The film won the Caméra d’Or prize at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, recognizing the best first feature film at the festival. It also earned the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as Best First Feature at the Philadelphia Film Festival and audience awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival. The success of Me and You and Everyone We Know established July as a significant new voice in American independent cinema.

Her second feature film The Future premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. July appeared in an episode of Portlandia in 2012, demonstrating her versatility as a performer across different formats. During this period she also published several literary works, including the short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You in 2007, which won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and the non-fiction collection It Chooses You in 2011.

Notable Works and Milestones

July’s three feature films represent her most prominent cinematic achievements. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) remains her most acclaimed work, winning multiple prestigious awards and establishing her unique cinematic voice. The Future (2011) continued her exploration of intimacy and relationships with a more surrealist approach. Her third feature Kajillionaire (2020), a heist film produced by Plan B Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures starring Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger and Gina Rodriguez, premiered to strong reviews and further demonstrated her range as a filmmaker. Her literary career produced four published works including the novel The First Bad Man (2015) and her most recent novel All Fours (2024), which was shortlisted for both the National Book Award for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Miranda July Award Nominations

Throughout her career, Miranda July has received nominations across multiple award ceremonies reflecting her diverse artistic output. Her film The Future was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. Her novel All Fours (2024) was shortlisted for both the National Book Award for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, representing significant recognition for her literary work.

Miranda July Awards Won

Miranda July has won numerous awards recognizing her achievements in filmmaking and literature. Her debut feature film Me and You and Everyone We Know earned the two most prestigious honors of her career: the Caméra d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Her early experimental short films also earned significant recognition. The Amateurist (1998) won the Cinematexas Best Experimental and No Budget Awards in 1999, the New York Expo 1999 Silver Award in the Experimental category, and the San Francisco Golden Gate Award Silver Spire in 2000. Nest of Tens (2000) won the main prize at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in 2001 and the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival’s Gecko Award in 2000. Her literary work No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007) won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

Miranda July Family

Miranda July was born to Lindy Hough and Richard Grossinger in Barre, Vermont. Both parents were writers who taught at Goddard College and co-founded North Atlantic Books. Her cousin is ballet dancer Skylar Brandt. July’s artistic and literary background was fostered in her household, with both parents contributing to her creative development.

Personal Life

Miranda July married filmmaker and visual artist Mike Mills in 2009. The couple met at both of their first Sundance Festival premieres in 2005, the same year July’s debut feature premiered. They have one child together, born in March 2012. In July 2022, July announced that she and Mills had separated romantically, although they continue to live near each other and co-parent their child. July has spoken publicly about the importance of feminism in her life, describing it as being supportive of one’s ability to do what needs to be done. She legally changed her last name to July at age 15 after a character based on her appeared in a story by her high school best friend Johanna Fateman. She made the change official in her early 20s. July has participated in various public art projects including Eleven Heavy Things at the 2009 Venice Biennale and the iOS app Somebody in 2014, demonstrating her ongoing commitment to experimental artistic collaboration.