Jennie Livingston is a groundbreaking filmmaker, known for her lively storytelling, nuanced character portraits, and thoughtful explorations of identity, class, race, death, sex, and gender. She works in both fiction and nonfiction. Jennie's taught at Yale, Connecticut College, and Brooklyn College, lectured widely, written for national magazines, and appeared as a subject or speaker in a number of documentaries and cultural programs. Livingston has been a recipient of grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the German Academic Exchange, the MacDowell Colony, The Newhouse Foundation, the Rosenthal Family Foundation, The Getty Center, and others.

Livingston was born in Texas, raised in Los Angeles, educated at Yale, and lives in New York City.