Julie Jensen Biography
Julie Jensen was reared in southern Utah. She has a Ph.D. in theatre from Wayne State University in Detroit, and has taught playwriting at seven different colleges and universities. She worked as a writer in Hollywood for five years and until recently directed the graduate playwriting program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She is now Resident Playwright at Salt Lake Acting Company.
Jensen is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays (White Money), the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work (The Lost Vegas Series), and the LA Weekly Award for Best New Play (Two-Headed). She has received the McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship (WAIT!), the TCG/NEA Playwriting Residency (WAIT!), and a major grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts (Dust Eaters). She has won the Mill Mountain Theatre Playwriting Competition three times (Tender Hooks, Last Lists of My Mad Mother and Two-Headed). Her play, Two-Headed, was included in the volume Best Plays by Women, 2000, and she has twice been nominated by the American Theatre Critics Association for the best new play produced outside of New York (Last Lists of My Mad Mother and Dust Eaters).
Her work has been produced in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as in this country in New York and theatres nationwide. She has been commissioned by Mark Taper Forum, ASK Theatre Projects, Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Salt Lake Acting Company, Geva Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company and National New Play Network. Her work is published by Dramatic Publishing, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Inc., Smith and Kraus, and Heinemann.