Greta Gerwig was born in Sacramento, California on August 4, 1983. She is an American actress and filmmaker. She first garnered attention after working on and appearing in several mumblecore films. Between 2006 and 2009, she appeared in a number of films by Joe Swanberg, some of which she co-wrote or co-directed, including Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007) and Nights and Weekends (2008). She is the daughter of Christine, agynecologist nurse, and Gordon Gerwig, who worked for a credit union on small business loans. She is close to her parents and they make an appearance in Frances Ha as her character's parents. She has an older brother, a landscape architect, and sister, a manager at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Gerwig has German, Irish, and English ancestry. Gerwig was raised a Unitarian Universalist. She attended St. Francis High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Sacramento, and graduated in 2002. She has described herself as having been an intense child. Gerwig showed an early interest in dance and later took up competitive fencing, but had to quit in part due to the high costs. She had intended to complete a degree in musical theatre in New York, but ended up graduating from Barnard College with a degree in English and philosophy. Outside class, she performed in the Columbia University Varsity Show with Kate McKinnon. For Gerwig, the hardest part of being a woman in a male-dominated industry is convincing others that stories about women are worth producing. “Women’s stories are commercial,” she said “They are not niche. They can reach a large audience. Lots of people can go see them.” In spite of the outrage on her behalf, Gerwig takes a more positive view of the industry, hanging on to the belief that things are generally moving in the right direction for women in Hollywood. “There have been great strides, and we’ve got to keep going: keep writing, keep making, keep doing,” Although there’s no simple solution to the gender disparity, Gerwig offers a suggestion saying don’t just ask female directors why the industry is so difficult for them, ask male directors as well. “I think it’s about asking the question of everyone, not just when women come on to talk about things,” “Don’t just ask it of women, because some of it is a bit like, ‘This is really hard for you. Why is that?’ I don’t know, man. You made it hard,” she says. The success of movies such as Wonder Woman and Hustlers have helped pave the way, but women still have to go through the “process of convincing people that financing movies about women is not a bad investment,” says Gerwig. “It’s a really good investment.” Proving that women’s stories are commercial is a two-fold problem, she says. It’s not just about getting more women in the director’s chair, but showing “the subject, stories of women and girls as being something that’s financially viable” as well. Despite there being a number of incredible films directed by women this year (2019), when the Academy announced its nominations for Best Director, it was unsurprisingly: men, men, men, men, men. Now, speaking at the Oscars luncheon, Greta Gerwig has said that the number of women directors is still not where it needs to be.