Patty Jenkins A’93

Patty Jenkins A’93 received the 2004 Urban Visionaries Award. Jenkins landed her first job in film at the age of 14 when she worked as an assistant on The River City Reunion, a documentary of a reunion of beat poets and artists initiated by William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Years later, while training as a painter at The Cooper Union, she crossed over to film making and graduated with a series of short films. She then worked for six years as a First Assistant Camera person on hundreds of commercials and music videos. In 2000, Jenkins graduated from AFI’s Directing program and went on to direct and write the award-winning film Monster. The critically acclaimed Monster earned Charlize Theron the Best Actress Oscar for her unflinching portrayal of Aileen Wuornos, executed in 2002 for killing six men. Monster was named Best First Feature by the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards; was selected as one of the 10 best films of 2003 by American Film Institute and recognized as the “The Best Film of the Year” by critic Roger Ebert. She has since directed several episodes of HBO’s series Entourage and Fox’s hit television series Arrested Development.  In 2015, she was chosen to direct Wonder Woman for Warner Bros.

Patty Jenkins participated in the Cooper Union Alumni Film Festival held January 28th – February 26th, 2011.

Patty Jenkins was inducted into The Cooper Union Hall of Fame in 2009.