Jane Anderson
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
An award-winning, openly lesbian writer, Jane Anderson first garnered attention for her pungent and wittily observed teleplay for the 1993 HBO original "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom." Her script depicted the scrambling by American TV networks for the rights to the story and the aftermath of the crime yet never lost sight of the humanity of the individuals involved. Her efforts were highly praised (Variety called it a "formidable achievement") and Anderson netted a richly deserved Emmy award.
The daughter of a Silicon Valley software designer and a housewife, Anderson was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. After a brief flirtation with college, she headed to NYC at age 19 to pursue an acting career. Almost immediately, she landed a role in the 1975 premiere of David Mamet's "Sexual Perversity in Chicago." The petite actress went on to develop her own stand-up comedy act as well as the one-person show, "How to Raise a Gifted Child" which brought her back to California. Anderson was a regular on the short-lived "The Billy Crystal Comedy Hour" (NBC, 1982) and segued to working behind the scenes in TV after becoming frustrated by the lack of decent parts. She created the failed sitcom "Raising Miranda" (CBS, 1988) and then went on to pen episodes of sitcoms like "The Facts of Life" and "The Wonder Years" before turning to the theater. Her first produced play was "Defying Gravity," a collage of impressions of the Challenger space shuttle disaster.
Commissioned to write a new play, Anderson turned to a friend's life for inspiration and wrote the adoption-themed drama "The Baby Dance" which premiered to good notices at the Balcony Theatre of the Pasadena Playhouse in 1990. Remounted Off-Broadway the following year with Stefanie Zimbalist and Linda Purl in the lead roles, the play was unjustly excoriated by the Gotham critics. Having rejuvenated her career in 1993, Anderson soon found herself in demand. She made her feature debut with the based-on-fact screenplay "It Could Happen to You" (1994) about a cop who tipped a waitress with a winning lottery ticket. The charming romantic comedy, though, didn't exactly click with audience at the cineplexes despite good notices. Her second feature effort, the adaptation of Whitney Otto's novel "How to Make an American Quilt" (1995) fared slightly better.
Anderson returned to the small screen with an adaptation of her play "The Baby Dance" (Showtime, 1998). Having attempted to conceive a child with her long-term partner, Anderson, in one of those life-imitating-art scenarios, finally adopted a son just as she got the green light to turn her play into a TV-movie. In an article written for The New York Times in August 1998, the writer admitted that her approach to writing and directing the piece for television had been influenced by the events in her own life: ." . , the true change in the piece is not literal. It's somewhere in the subtext . . . It's my story now. It's about my own unspeakable ache to love a child." The Showtime film, produced under the auspices of Jodie Foster's Egg Pictures and starring Stockard Channing and Laura Dern, received rave reviews and earned Anderson a pair of Emmy nominations for writing and directing.
Two years later, she wrote and directed the "1961" segment of the HBO anthology sequel "If These Walls Could Talk 2" (2000), a delicate piece that focused on an older woman (Vaness Redgrave) dealing with the death of her lifelong lesbian companion. Once again, the Television Academy gave Anderson an Emmy nomination for her teleplay. Anderson went on to write and direct "When Billie Beat Bobby" (ABC, 2001), a satirical mockumentary about the famed Battle of the Sexes tennis match between Billie Jean King (Holly Hunter) and Bobby Riggs (Ron Silver). She then wrote and directed "Normal" (HBO, 2003), about a husband and father (Tom Wilkinson) who suddenly announces to his family his desire for a sex change operation. It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television, while Anderson earned nominations from the Writers and Directors Guilds. Anderson made her feature film debut as a director with "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" (2005), a kid gloves drama about a 1950's housewife (Julianne Moore) whose talent for winning jingle-contests keeps her struggling family afloat while her bum of a husband (Woody Harrelson) drinks away his meager wages. Anderson followed that success with a stint on the writing staff of "Mad Men" (AMC 2007-2015) during the highly-acclaimed series' second season. She won her second Emmy award in 2015 for penning the miniseries "Olive Kitteridge" (HBO 2014), directed by Lisa Cholodenko.
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Life Events
1975
Landed first professional role in Off-Broadway production of David Mamet's "Sexual Perversity in Chicago"
1982
Was regular on the short-lived variety program "The Billy Crystal Comedy Hour" (NBC)
1984
Served as producer, creator and writer of the CBS sitcom "Raising Miranda"; only seven episodes aired
1986
Scripted episodes of the NBC sitcom "The Facts of Life"
1988
Penned an episode of the ABC comedy series "The Wonder Years"
1990
Premiered stage play "The Baby Dance" at the Balcony Theatre of the Pasadena Playhouse; staged Off-Broadway in 1991 with Stefanie Zimbalist and Linda Purl
1993
Wrote the based-on-fact teleplay for the HBO movie "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom"; first collaboration with Holly Hunter
1994
Landed feature writing debut, "It Could Happen to You", based on a real-life event wherein a cop tipped a waitress with a winning lottery ticket
1994
Produced one-act "Lynnette at 3 a.m." on stage in L.A. under the auspices of Showtime
1995
Scripted the film adaptation of the novel "How to Make an American Quilt"
1998
Landed TV directorial debut, the Showtime adaptation of her play "The Baby Dance"
2000
Wrote and directed the "1961" segment of the omnibus TV-movie "If These Walls Could Talk 2", about the lesbian experience in America; received an Emmy nomination for teleplay
2001
Wrote the script for the ABC TV-movie "Battle of the Sexes" which depicted the events leading up to the 1972 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobbie Riggs; second collaboration with Holly Hunter who portrayed King
2003
Directed "Normal," the HBO adaptation of her play "Looking for Normal," starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson
2005
Helmed the adaptation of "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" based on a heartwarming memoir about an enterprising woman who supported her family during the contest era of the 1950s and 1960s
2008
Was on the writing staff for "Mad Men" during the show's second season
2014
Wrote the screenplay for HBO miniseries "Olive Kitteridge"
Family
Companions
