Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham 

Lena Dunham 

Date of Birth

13 May 1986, New York City, New York, USA 

Mini Biography

New Yorker Lena Dunham is the daughter of a painter, Carroll Dunham and Laurie Simmons, a designer and photographer. Dunham was educated at Oberlin College, Ohio, graduating with a creative writing degree. It was while at Oberlin that she began writing shorts and feature films. In 2009, Dunham created the web series "Delusional Downtown Divas" (2009), which gained a cult following.

Also in 2009, Dunham released Creative Nonfiction (2009), her first feature film. She went on to write, direct and star in Tiny Furniture (2010), which scored two Independent Spirit Award nominations. In 2012, Dunham came to the attention of a wider audience with the HBO series "Girls" (2012) created by and starring Dunham and executive produced by Judd Apatow.

Trivia

Older sister of Grace Dunham.

Director and star of "Tight Shots" (2007), a comedic web series on Nerve.com.

Writer, director, producer, and costar of "Delusional Downtown Divas" (2009), a web show satirizing the New York art world.

Friend of Jemima Kirke.

Met friend Audrey Gelman in Oberlin College.

One of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World (2013).

Personal Quotes

[on body image] It completely sickens me what our culture is doing to women. Last week I wore a big top and little shorts and a bunch of stuff came out saying I was without pants. 'The No-Pants Look,' it said. And I didn't go out without pants, I had shorts on...If Olivia Wilde had gone to a party with a big silky top and little shorts she might have been told her outfit was cute...What it was really: 'Why did you show us your thighs'?

[on the criticism of the lack of racial diversity on "Girls" (2012)] It was the elephant in the corner of the room ... I felt like people were scared to talk about it [because] they'd get my racist juice all over them ... The argument there are not enough minority characters to represent New York-that I couldn't argue against. What I didn't like was the angle that 'therefore you are a racist, you are raised by racists, you come from a world of class and privilege.'

Sorry I'm late. My acupuncturist pushed everything a half an hour, and he has me convinced that if I don't do acupuncture, then something terrible is going to befall me.

I've started to get used to people feeling like they already know me when they meet me. I've obviously only experienced it within the past year of my life, but it's really interesting to have so many people who you're not familiar with act familiar with you. So you do have to come up with a strategy for how to handle that, and mine has been to try to match that familiarity by being familiar back. The only flip side to that has been that I've had this thing happen where I've been really familiar with someone and they will feel like we've started a close friendship, and then I'll feel like I've disappointed them in some way by having a boundary in my life.

Anne Hathaway is a feminist and she has amazing teeth. Let's save our bad attitudes for the ones who aren't advancing the cause.

Where Are They Now

(November 2007) A senior at Oberlin College

(October 2008) Lives and works in New York City.

(February 2013) New York, NY, USA: Announces new deal to create and write a second series for HBO with her _Girls (2012)_ producer 'Jenni Konner' based on a memoir by Betty Habreich, a NYC department-store personal shopper for the rich and famous.