Janicza Bravo

Bravo was born in New York City, the daughter of Ana María Ford and Rafael Ángel Landers.[3] Her parents, who are tailors, are both from Latin America. From the time she was three months old to a teenager, she grew up on an Army base in Panama City, Panama, until she was 13 years old, when her family moved back to the United States.[1] She spent time going back and forth between the United States and Panama throughout her childhood.[4]

Bravo attended New York University, where she majored in directing and design for theater, which included costume and set design.[5][6] She also studied acting at New York University's Playwrights Horizons Theater School.[1]

After graduating from college Bravo worked as a stylist and wardrobe designer.[1]

Bravo got her start writing and directing a series of short films. Her first film, Eat, which debuted at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival and was picked up by Vice, and starred Katherine Waterston and Brett Gelman. The film told the story of a woman who is locked out of her apartment and meets an odd neighbor.[7][8]

Her second film, the 2013 dark comedy named Gregory Go Boom, was shown at the Sundance Film Festival and featured Michael Cera as a paraplegic who lives near the Salton Sea.[9] The film was shot on location in Bombay Beach and Slab City, California.[4] Bravo worked with JASH to produce and release the film online.[6][10] The film's title was inspired by the 1976 François Truffaut film, Small Change, where the boy falls out the window yet survives.[4]

Her third short film, 2014's Pauline Alone, features Gaby Hoffmann as a Craigslist-obsessed woman.[1][11] In 2014, she was named one of Filmmaker magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film".[1]

In 2015, Bravo shot a featurette on Victoria Beckham for Glamour's 25th Anniversary Women of the Year Awards called "Victoria Beckham Is Living a Life Filled with Style and Grace".[12][13]

In 2016, Bravo released the short film, Hard World for Small Things, a live-action virtual reality film that was a "day in the life" depiction of South Central. The project was grant funded by Eve Cohen and James Kaelan of Seed and Spark.[14] The film was inspired by the death of a cousin, visiting from Panama, who in the summer of 1999 was asphyxiated by the police in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn is a case of mistaken identity.[15] It was shot using GoPro cameras for the virtual reality company Wevr, and was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and the AFI Festival Los Angeles.[16][17] The title of the film was inspired by a line of dialog in the 1955 film noir film, The Night of the Hunter,[2] and marked a distinct departure in theme, as it focused on race and politics.[17]

Also in 2016, Bravo took the short, Woman in Deep, to the 2016 SXSW Film Festival. The film stars Alison Pill and was grant-funded via The Nantucket Project.[15]

In 2016, Bravo directed her first feature, an independent film called Lemon, which she co-wrote with then-husband Brett Gelman.[18] The film stars Gelman, Michael Cera, and Judy Greer, and includes performances by Nia Long, Fred Melamed, Shiri Appleby, Rhea Perlman, David Paymer, Gillian Jacobs, Megan Mullally, Martin Starr, Jeff Garlin, and Marla Gibbs. After a somewhat turbulent pre-production process, the film was picked up by Killer Films and Burn Later Productions and premiered at Sundance in 2017.[19]

In addition to creating her own work, Bravo directed season 1 episode 9, "Juneteenth", of the FX television show Atlanta, which stars and was created by Donald Glover, as well as season 3 episode 5, "Bertie's Birthday", of the Netflix television show Love, which was created by and stars Paul Rust.[20]

Bravo's latest film, Zola, was directed and co-written by Bravo, along with playwright Jeremy O. Harris. The film is based on a 148-tweet thread by Detroit waitress Aziah "Zola" Wells about a trip she took to Florida with a stripper named Jessica. Zola had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Award.[21]

In December 2015, Bravo married her long-time boyfriend, actor Brett Gelman.[1][22] Gelman and Bravo met in New York City while working on a New York Lotto commercial.[23] They live in Los Angeles.[17] She speaks Spanish fluently and is Latin American.[4] Gelman describes Bravo as being Jewish and Black and Panamanian.[24] They divorced in 2019.[25]

• 2014: Sundance Film Festival, Short Film Grand Jury Prize (nominated) – Gregory Go Boom
• 2014: Sundance Film Festival, Short Film Jury Award: US Fiction – Gregory Go Boom[26][27]

• 2011: Eat (Short) – Writer, Director, Editor[7]
• 2013: Gregory Go Boom (Short) – Producer, Writer, Director, Editor[10]
• 2014: Pauline Alone (Short) – Producer, Writer, Director, Editor[11]
• 2015: Woman of the Year (Short) – Director
• 2015: Hot Package (TV series) – Writer, 5 episodes
• 2016: Hard World for Small Things (Short) – Producer, Writer, Director[16]
• 2016: Woman in Deep (Short) – Producer, Writer, Director
• 2016: Man Rots From the Head (Short) – Producer, Writer, Director
• 2016: The New Yorker presents: Couple's First Dinner Party, Serves Six (Short) – Director, Writer[28]
• 2016: Atlanta (TV series) – Director, 1 episode: "Juneteenth"
• 2017: Lemon – Producer, Writer, Director
• 2017: Hell In The Afternoon (Short) – Producer, Writer, Director
• 2018: Forever (TV series) – Director
• 2020: Zola – Writer, Director

• Official website
• Janicza Bravo at IMDb