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Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
Born	c. 1954 (age 69–70); California
Occupation(s)	Actress, playwright, screenwriter, director
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Tess Ayers
Children	1

Jane Anderson (born c. 1954 in California) is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and director. She wrote and directed the feature film The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005), and wrote the film It Could Happen to You (1994), starring Nicolas Cage. She won an Emmy Award for writing the screenplay for the miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014).

Career

Jane Anderson got her start as an actress, before getting her first writing job as a writer and consultant on the sitcom The Facts of Life (on which she had also appeared). She followed this up by creating the short-lived sitcom Raising Miranda, which was cancelled in its first season. She then had several other TV series gigs, and wrote her first play, The Baby Dance (1989).

Her first film experience was writing the 1993 HBO film The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, starring Holly Hunter; the film was critically acclaimed, and TV critics Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall in their 2016 book TV (The Book) named it the 2nd greatest American TV movie of all time, behind Steven Spielberg's Duel.^[1] She later wrote and directed several other critically acclaimed television movies, including The Baby Dance (1998), based on her play and starring Stockard Channing and Laura Dern; When Billie Beat Bobby (2001) starring Holly Hunter and Ron Silver; and Normal (2003), based on her play Looking for Normal and starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson. She also wrote the segment "1961" of the 2000 HBO film If These Walls Could Talk 2, which won Vanessa Redgrave an Emmy Award for her portrayal of an elderly lesbian prevented from hospital visitation with her dying long-time companion.

She became a writer for the AMC television drama Mad Men for the show's second season in 2008. She was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series for her work on the second season.^[2]

In 2015, Anderson wrote the documentary Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson about her great aunt, Edith Lake Wilkinson, a lesbian and painter who was institutionalized in the 1920s and spent the rest of her life in an asylum for the mentally ill.^[3] Anderson cites Wilkinson as an inspiration for her own drawing.^[3]

In 2017, Anderson wrote the Glenn Close-starring The Wife.

Filmography

As writer / director

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	The Facts of Life	Writer	"The Apartment", "Ready or Not", "Write and Wrong"
1988	Raising Miranda	Writer	"Black Monday", "Home for the Holidays"
1989	The Wonder Years	Writer	"How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation"
1991	The Hidden Room	Writer	"Dream Child", "A Type of Love Story"
1993	The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom	Writer	TV film
1994	It Could Happen to You	Writer
1995	How to Make an American Quilt	Writer
1998	The Baby Dance	Writer & director	TV film
2000	If These Walls Could Talk 2	Writer & director	TV film, segment "1961"
2001	When Billie Beat Bobby	Writer & director	TV film
2003	Normal	Writer & director	TV film
2005	The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio	Writer & director
2008	Mad Men	Writer	"The Gold Violin"
2014	Olive Kitteridge	Writer	TV miniseries
2015	Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson	Writer	Documentary
2017	The Wife	Writer

As producer

Year	Title	Notes
1988	Raising Miranda	9 episodes
2008	Mad Men	"The Gold Violin", "A Night to Remember"
2014	Olive Kitteridge	TV miniseries
2015	Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson	Documentary

As actress

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	The Billy Crystal Comedy Hour	Regular performer	TV series
1978	Girlfriends	Omega Receptionist	Film
1984	P.O.P.	Dana McNeil	TV film
1984	E/R	Mrs. Grettie	"Only a Nurse"
1985	The Facts of Life	Karen	"We Get Letters"

Other work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985–86	The Facts of Life	Program consultant	5 episodes
1986	Who's the Boss?	Program consultant	"Charmed Lives"
1989	The Wonder Years	Executive story editor	7 episodes

Plays

The Baby Dance (1989)
Looking for Normal (2001)^[4]
Defying Gravity
The Quality of Life (2007)^[5]
The Escort: An Explicit Play for Discriminating People (2011)^[6]
The Baby Dance: Mixed (2018; revised version of The Baby Dance)^[7]

Awards and nominations

Emmy Award for writing The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993)
Emmy Award nominations for writing and directing The Baby Dance (1998)
Emmy Award nomination for writing Normal (2003)
Emmy Award nomination for writing If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000) (For episode "1961")
Women in Film Lucy Award (2000) in recognition of excellence and innovation in a writing a creative work (If These Walls Could Talk 2) that has enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television^[8]
Directors Guild of America Award nomination for directing Normal (2003)
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series for her work on the second season of Mad Men (2008)^[2]
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award (2008) for Outstanding World Premiere Play for writing The Quality of Life^[9]
Two Ovation Awards (2008) for writing The Quality of Life^[10]
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Long Form Adapted Series for writing Olive Kitteridge (2015)
Emmy Award for writing Olive Kitteridge (2015)