- Born
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- Born in Brooklyn in 1969 Noah Baumbach is the son of two film critics, Georgia Brown and Jonathan Baumbach (also a writer). His studies at Vassar College were the subject of his first film (made as he was 26 years old), Kicking and Screaming (1995). His second major picture, made ten years later, The Squid and the Whale (2005) was no less autobiographical but went back further in his personal history, back to the time when his parents separated. Recounting this past trauma and its aftermath earned Noah a selection at the Sundance Film Festival, three Golden Globe nominations and a best screenplay Oscar nomination. From then on his career was launched and his output became more regular with Margot at the Wedding (2007) starring Nicole Kidman and his wife Jennifer Jason Leigh, Greenberg (2010), filmed in Los Angeles, with Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig. Back in New york, where he lives, he was the director (and co-author with his main actress, Greta Gerwig) of the bittersweet art house success Frances Ha (2012). Besides directing films, he also co-writes some with Wes Anderson, a good friend of his, and is the author of humor columns in the New Yorker.- IMDb mini biography by: Guy Bellinger
- SpousesGreta Gerwig(December 19, 2023 - present) (2 children)Jennifer Jason Leigh(September 3, 2005 - September 17, 2013) (divorced, 1 child)
- Parents
- RelativesNico Baumbach(Sibling)Harold Baumbach(Grandparent)Ida Baumbach(Grandparent)
- Most of his films are at 90 minutes margin
- Often works with Greta Gerwig
- Recurring theme of dysfunctional families
- His films often focus on immature people who are unwilling to act mature
- Often works with Ben Stiller and Adam Driver
- According to himself, he tends to return again and again to making movies about people who have an image of themselves they can't live up to.
- Is a close friend and collaborator of Wes Anderson.
- When directing on set, prefers saying 'Begin' or 'When you're ready', instead of 'Action!'.
- Has a son, Rohmer Emmanuel Baumbach (born March 17, 2010), with his ex-wife Jennifer Jason Leigh.
- Had his script for The Squid and the Whale (2005) hand-delivered to Laura Linney by his friend Eric Stoltz during the filming of The House of Mirth (2000) in 2000. Linney agreed to do the film immediately, but it took four years to raise the financing.
- I always viewed life as material for a movie.
- I grew up in the heat of 70s postmodern fiction and post-Godard films, and there was this idea that what mattered was the theory or meta in art. My film is emotional rather than meta, and that's my rebellion.
- "I still carry the residue of the pressure I felt as a child to read and appreciate the right books. Growing up, I never allowed myself to read beach reading. I was always plowing through Ford Madox Ford's "Good Solider" or something I wasn't equipped to understand".
- Somebody could easily go through and link everything to different points in not just my family, but people I know - but I don't even really care. For me, the movie is a protection - a completely reinvented film. [on 'The Squid and The Whale.']
- I don't outline. And when I've done jobs either in television or for a studio, and outlines have been part of the deal, it seems completely artificial to me and, I think, made it harder for me to write the script afterward.
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