Personal info
Known for
Director
Gender
Female
Date of Birth
1966-02-14
Location
New York, United States
Edit pageJessica Yu
Biography
Jessica Lingmin Yu (born February 14, 1966) is an American film director, writer, producer, and editor. She has directed documentary films, dramatic films, and television shows.
Yu won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1996 for Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien (1996). Yu's film Last Call at the Oasis (2012) is based on Alex Prud'homme's Ripple Effect.
Her more recent films have been: Misconception (2014), ForEveryone.Net (2016), a documentary film about the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and a Netflix comedy Maria Bamford: Old Baby (2017).
In 2019, Yu was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Direction for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special" for the Fosse/Verdon episode "Glory".
Yu grew up in Los Altos Hills, California. Her father, Dr. Kou-ping Yu, an oncologist, was born in Shanghai. Her mother, Connie Young Yu, writer and historian, is a third-generation Californian.
Yu graduated from Gunn High School in Palo Alto. She was a reporter for the school newspaper, The Oracle.
She went on to attend Yale University, where she was a two-time NCAA All-American and three-time All-Ivy in fencing.
As a world-class foilist, she was a member of the Junior World Team and the United States national team at the World Championships and World University Games.
Yu graduated from Yale University in 1987 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a bachelor's degree in English.
Yu is married to author Mark Salzman. They and their daughters, Ava and Esme, live in Los Angeles.
Jessica has an older sister, Jennifer Yu, a technical publications manager, and a younger brother, Martin Yu, an actor.
