Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal is an American screenwriter and director. She is the mother of actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Early life and education
Foner was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of doctors Ruth and Samuel Achs. Her parents were both of Jewish ancestry. Her aunt was Freda Hertz, a lawyer. She was raised in a family of "high-achieving New York Jews." Her Ashkenazi Jewish grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe.She attended Barnard College in New York City, graduating with a BA degree in English. She later earned an MA degree in developmental psychology from Columbia University.
Career
She has written the screenplays for several feature films, including Running on Empty, Losing Isaiah, and Bee Season. She was the Naomi referenced in the line "...what about Naomi?" at the end of each Love of Chair segment of The Electric Company, where she was an associate producer for two seasons.In 2013, she made her directorial debut with Very Good Girls, starring Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival before attaining online and theatrical distribution in the U.S. with Tribeca Film. She collaborated on a script for an American-Chinese co-production titled Moon Flower of Flying Tigers, which was to be co-produced by Ann An and Paula Wagner and based upon the book by Gao Demin.