Jennifer Chambers Lynch (born April 7, 1968) is an American film director and screenwriter. The eldest child of filmmaker David Lynch, she made her directorial debut with the film Boxing Helena (1993), which was a critical and commercial failure; despite being nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, it earned her a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director. The negative reception and controversy surrounding the film led to Lynch taking a 15-year hiatus from filmmaking.

Lynch returned to directing with Surveillance (2008), which received mixed reviews but won the top prize at the Sitges Film Festival. She directed the Bollywood horror film Hisss (2010), which she disowned after the production was completed without her involvement. Her fourth film, Chained (2012), was met with a positive critical reception. She has since focused on television, directing episodes of Psych, Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Once Upon a Time, Hawaii Five-0, Elementary, The Strain, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., 9-1-1, and Ratched.

Outside of filmmaking, Lynch wrote the book The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (1990). Told from the perspective of the character of the same name from her father's television series Twin Peaks, the novel was a commercial success, reaching No. 4 on The New York Times paperback fiction best seller list that year.

Early life

Jennifer Chambers Lynch was born in Philadelphia on April 7, 1968, the daughter of painter Peggy Reavey and filmmaker David Lynch. Two of her father's great-grandparents were Swedish-speaking Finns. She began practicing Transcendental Meditation, which her father famously promoted, at the age of six. She graduated from the Interlochen Art Academy, where she studied visual arts and creative writing.

Career

Film

Lynch was educated in Los Angeles and Michigan at Interlochen Arts Academy. Together with her mother, Lynch made a brief appearance in her father's debut feature film Eraserhead, but her appearance was not included in the final cut. Lynch subsequently worked as a production assistant on Blue Velvet (1986), also directed by her father.

Boxing Helena (1993)

Lynch's commissioned screenplay for Boxing Helena, which she would later go on to direct, attracted many actresses, including Madonna. Sherilyn Fenn, one of the stars of both her father's television series Twin Peaks and his film Wild at Heart, was ultimately cast as leading character Helena. Kim Basinger was also attached and was famously sued after resigning from the project. The controversy surrounding that case, as well as feminist outcry over Helenas sadistic subject matter and accusations of nepotism, accompanied the movie's critical drubbing upon its release in 1993.

In a 2009 interview with The Hollywood Interview, Lynch mentions her reactions to the critical reception of Boxing Helena:

I would love to know why people were so mad at me for telling a crazy fairy tale. I'm the first to say I didn't know what I was doing. I did the best I could at 19, and all these crazy things happened. The idea that the film was faulted when everyone involved worked so fucking hard and believed in me, and there were these adults believing in me, who was essentially a child…when the National Organization of Women slammed me, that was sort of the final straw. It was no wonder I put my legs behind my ears and got pregnant. (laughs) Not that I didn't love sex before then, but seriously. It was my child, essentially, who saved my life.

Surveillance (2008)

Following a lengthy hiatus, Lynch directed Surveillance, which won the top prize at the Festival de Cine de Sitges. A month later, Lynch became the first woman to receive the New York City Horror Film Festival's Best Director award.

Hisss (2009)

Lynch was announced as director of the film Nagin (the film is also known as Hisss), that featured Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat, but the film that was released was not Lynch's work, even though the producers attached her name to the final product. Lynch explained in a 2012 interview:

Well, ultimately, I didn't get to make that film. I put my director's cut together, and the producers decided it was not what they wanted. They took it back to India. I never did any scoring or cutting or color-timing or any of the things you do to make the movie. They took the footage and changed it into what they wanted it to be. So it's not my film. I went to India and shot some footage, but I have nothing to do with the movie they made.

Chained (2012)

Lynch then directed and co-wrote the 2012 thriller film Chained, in which Vincent D'Onofrio stars as a cab-driving serial killer. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, with a 68% rating on review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes.

Future film projects

Lynch was scheduled to film Visibility for the Motion Picture Corporation of America in 2011, but, as of December 2025, this project is not completed.

, Lynch was preparing A Fall from Grace, a film set and filmed in St. Louis and inspired by the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Television

Lynch has directed episodes of many television series such as Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, The Watcher, Jessica Jones, Finding Carter, Psych, Quantico, Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead, The Last Ship, Wayward Pines, American Horror Story, The Strain, Once Upon a Time, Hawaii Five-0 and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.Daredevil

Other projects

Lynch authored The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer to accompany the television show Twin Peaks which was created by her father David Lynch and Mark Frost.

In 1993, Lynch directed the music video "Living in the Rose" by the British rock band New Model Army.

On March 21, 2010, Lynch was a judge at the International Surrealist Film Festival and she worked as producer for the Corey Brandenstein natural horror film The Compound.

An Australian documentary titled Despite the Gods, which chronicles Lynch's struggle to make the film Hisss, was released in 2012. The documentary was shown at the Canadian International Documentary Festival and the program described the film as follows: "Out of her depth shooting on location with an Indian crew and two top Bollywood stars, Lynch turns her production into a vehicle for her own self-actualization, paying no regard to timeline, budget or reality. As the story in front of the camera derails, the story behind the camera explodes". She eventually disowned Hisss.

As of 2015, she is also a member of the board of advisers for the Hollywood Horror Museum.

Awards and nominations

Boxing Helena received incredibly scathing reviews upon its release and a Razzie Award for "Worst Director". Nevertheless, it was nominated for Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic category at the Sundance Film Festival.

Personal life

Lynch lives in Los Angeles and has a daughter. She revealed in 2009 that she underwent three spinal surgeries in the mid-1990s after getting into a car accident at the age of 19.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

Further reading

• A French article about Jennifer Lynch's works (

• Interview with

• Interview with director of

External links

• Jennifer Lynch at Allmovie