Patty Jenkins Bio
Patricia Lea Jenkins (born July 24, 1971) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer whose career has spanned independent features, television pilots, and major studio blockbusters. She is best known for directing the feature films Monster (2003), Wonder Woman (2017), and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). Jenkins became the first female director of an American studio superhero film with Wonder Woman, a milestone that placed her at the center of Hollywood’s ongoing conversation about representation and pay equity for women filmmakers.
Early Life and Background
Jenkins was born in Victorville, California, to William T. Jenkins, a United States Air Force officer and fighter pilot who earned a Silver Star during the Vietnam War, and Emily Roth, who later worked in San Francisco as an environmental scientist. Her older sister is Elaine Roth, and her younger sister is Jessica Jenkins Murphy. Because of her father’s military service, Jenkins spent her early childhood moving between locations, including brief stays in Thailand and Germany, before the family eventually settled in Lawrence, Kansas.
When Jenkins was seven years old, her father died during a NATO mock dogfight at the age of 31. Not long after, during a road trip from Kansas to San Francisco, her mother dropped Jenkins and her sister off at a movie theater, where they watched the original Superman starring Christopher Reeve. Jenkins has described the experience as inspiring and credited it with sparking her interest in filmmaking. She completed kindergarten through her junior year of high school in Lawrence before her mother moved the family to Washington, D.C., where she finished her senior year of high school.
Jenkins began taking an interest in photography, painting, and screen-printing in junior high school. At age twenty, while interning at a commercial production company, she was told she could receive film training if she worked on set for free. After several months of unpaid work she advanced to second assistant camera and focus puller, then spent eight years working as a camerawoman. While shooting a Michael Jackson music video, her director of photography recommended that she attend the American Film Institute to study directing.
Path to Director
Jenkins received her undergraduate degree in Painting from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1993 and later earned a master’s degree in directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory in 2000. While studying at AFI, she developed an interest in the films of Pedro Almodóvar and made the 2001 short film Velocity Rules, a project she has described as a blend of superhero storytelling and Almodóvar’s tone about an accident-prone housewife. The short received a Warner Brothers Production Grant and screened at AFI Fest, where it caught the attention of producer Brad Wyman.
Through Wyman, Jenkins was introduced to producer Donald Kushner, which led directly to her first feature film. Her path from camerawoman to feature director reflected both persistence and a willingness to learn across multiple roles on set. Mentors and collaborators in this period, including Gary Ross and Kathryn Bigelow, helped shape her approach to character-driven drama.
Patty Jenkins Career
Early Career (2001–2014)
Jenkins started her career directing her first film Just Drives in 2001, followed by the short Velocity Rules. These early projects helped her build the professional connections that would later finance larger work. Her feature debut arrived in 2003 with Monster, a film about serial killer Aileen Wuornos that Jenkins wrote after Wuornos left her all of her personal letters on the night before her execution. Made on a budget of $1.5 million with Charlize Theron in the lead, Monster grossed $64.2 million worldwide and earned Theron her first Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Critic Roger Ebert ranked Monster first on his list of the best films of 2003 and later third on his best films of the decade list.
After Monster, Jenkins spent roughly a decade working in television while developing new feature projects. In 2011 she directed a segment of the anthology film Five, earning an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the pilot of AMC’s The Killing, a project for which she also won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Dramatic Series. That same year she was hired to direct Thor: The Dark World but left the project after less than two months due to creative differences, an experience she has publicly discussed as an example of the creative limits female directors have faced within major franchises.
Breakthrough (2015–present)
In 2015 Jenkins signed on to direct the DC Extended Universe film Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot. Released in June 2017, the film gave Jenkins the biggest domestic opening for a female director at the time, surpassing the previous record holder Sam Taylor-Johnson for Fifty Shades of Grey. Wonder Woman grossed more than $800 million worldwide, was widely praised by critics and audiences, and made Jenkins the first female director of an American studio superhero film. During the press tour, she confirmed that she would direct the sequel and discussed her salary negotiations with Warner Bros., which became a widely cited moment in conversations about pay equity in Hollywood.
The sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, was originally scheduled for June 5, 2020, but was delayed to December 25, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017 Time magazine named Jenkins the seventh runner-up for Person of the Year. Following Wonder Woman 1984, Jenkins was attached to direct a Cleopatra film starring Gal Gadot, though she later stepped down as director in December 2021 to remain only as a producer and focus on other projects, including a third Wonder Woman film and a Star Wars spin-off.
In December 2020, Disney announced Jenkins as the director of Rogue Squadron, a Star Wars spin-off inspired by the group of starfighter pilots, making her the first female director attached to helm a Star Wars film. The project was delayed multiple times, removed from Disney’s release schedule in September 2022, and shelved in March 2023, though Jenkins confirmed in March 2024 that she had returned to the project after the cancellation of her third Wonder Woman film. A planned spin-off focused on the Amazons of Themyscira was placed in early development in November 2020, co-written by Jenkins and Geoff Johns, though she did not return to direct. A third Wonder Woman installment was announced in 2021 but reported as no longer moving forward in December 2022 after a change in leadership at DC Studios.
Notable Works and Milestones
Jenkins’s signature works include Monster, Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman 1984. Her breakthrough achievement, becoming the first female director of an American studio superhero film with Wonder Woman, is widely viewed as a landmark moment for women working in large-scale Hollywood filmmaking. She has also been recognized for her influence on cultural conversations about pay equity and the visibility of female directors in tentpole cinema.
Patty Jenkins Award Nominations
Jenkins has received several major nominations throughout her career. She earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for her work on the pilot of AMC’s The Killing in 2011, along with a Directors Guild of America nomination for Movies for Television and Limited Series for her segment of the anthology film Five. She was also nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Screenplay for Monster, and received two nominations at the 2012 Directors Guild of America Awards, winning one for The Killing.
Patty Jenkins Awards Won
For Monster, Jenkins won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature in 2004 and the Franklin J. Schaffner Award of the American Film Institute, an award given to outstanding graduates of the AFI Conservatory. She later won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Dramatic Series for the pilot of The Killing.
Patty Jenkins Family
Jenkins is the daughter of William T. Jenkins, a U.S. Air Force officer and fighter pilot who earned a Silver Star in Vietnam, and Emily Roth, who later worked as an environmental scientist in San Francisco. She has two sisters, Elaine Roth and Jessica Jenkins Murphy, and one son with her husband. Her father’s military aviation background has been a recurring source of inspiration in her career, most visibly in her attachment to the Star Wars film Rogue Squadron.
Personal Life
In 2007, Jenkins married Sam Sheridan, a former firefighter and author of the book A Fighter’s Heart. They have one son and reside in Santa Monica, California. She continues to develop projects through her production company, Wicious Pictures, and in late 2024 it was announced that she, along with Jake Kasdan and Joe Cornish, would each direct a live-action film for the Lego Group and Universal Pictures, with Jenkins co-writing and producing her entry alongside Geoff Johns.