Janicza Bravo () is an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Her films include Gregory Go Boom, a winner of the short-film jury award at the Sundance Film Festival; Lemon, co-written with Brett Gelman; and Zola, co-written with playwright Jeremy O. Harris.
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Early life and education
Bravo was born in New York City, the daughter of Ana María Ford and Rafael Ángel Landers. Her parents, who are tailors, are both from Colón, Panama. Her mother enlisted in the U.S. military when Bravo was an infant. From the time she was three months old to a teenager, she grew up between Colón and an Army base in Panama City, Panama, until her family moved back to the United States. She spent time going back and forth between the United States and Panama throughout her childhood. When she was 12, her family moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Bravo attended the Playwrights Horizons Theater School of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where she majored in directing and design for theater, which included costume and set design.
Several years after college, she moved to Los Angeles, worked as a stylist and produced small theater productions before she was approached by a cinematographer who offered assistance with filmmaking.
Career
After graduating from college Bravo worked as a stylist and wardrobe designer.
Bravo got her start writing and directing a series of short films. Her first film, Eat, starred Katherine Waterston and Brett Gelman and debuted at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival and was picked up by Vice. The film told the story of a woman who is locked out of her apartment and meets an odd neighbor.
Her second film, the 2013 dark comedy named Gregory Go Boom, won the short-film jury award at the Sundance Film Festival and featured Michael Cera as a paraplegic who lives near the Salton Sea. The film was shot on location in Bombay Beach and Slab City, California. Bravo worked with JASH to produce and release the film online. The film's title was inspired by the 1976 François Truffaut film, Small Change, where the boy falls out the window yet survives.
Her third short film, 2014's Pauline Alone, features Gaby Hoffmann as a Craigslist-obsessed woman. In 2014, she was named one of Filmmaker magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film".
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".
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. 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. 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. The title of the film was inspired by a line of dialog in the 1955 film noir film, The Night of the Hunter, and marked a distinct departure in theme, as it focused on race and politics.
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.
Personal life
Bravo speaks Spanish fluently and is Afro Latina.
In December 2015, Bravo married her long-time boyfriend, actor Brett Gelman. Gelman and Bravo met in New York City while working on a New York Lotto commercial. In 2016, they resided in Los Angeles. They divorced in 2018.
Awards
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
2026: Bravo won a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for best Director – Comedy for "Worms."