Jennifer Lee trivia: 40 amazing facts about the famous filmmaker

Jennifer Lee is an American screenwriter and film director. She is best known for creating Frozen!

So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about her life and career thus far!

1. Her full name is Jennifer Michelle Lee
2. She was born in October 22, 1971
3. Her birth name is Jennifer Michelle Rebecchi
4. Jennifer Lee is an American screenwriter, film director, and chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios
5. She is best known as the writer and director of Frozen
6. For the film she earned an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
7. Lee is the first female director of a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film and the first female director of a feature film that earned more than $1 billion in gross box office revenue
8. Lee was born in October 22, 1971 to Linda Lee and Saverio Rebecchi
9. They were living in Barrington, Rhode Island at the time
10. After their divorce, Lee lived with her mother in East Providence, Rhode Island
11. She has an older sister, Amy who is an English teacher,
12. Both Lee and her older sister graduated from East Providence High School and the University of New Hampshire
13. Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1992
14. She went to New York City, where she worked as a graphic artist in publishing
15. She designed audiobooks for Random House
16. As an adult, she began using her mother’s maiden name, Lee, in a professional capacity
17. In January 1995,she legally changed her last name from Rebecchi to Lee
18. Lee graduated from Columbia University School of the Arts’ Film Program with a MFA in film in 2005
19. While at Columbia, she won several awards for excellence in screenwriting
20. She has a daughter named Agatha
21. Her script for The Round Up was a quarter-finalist in the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition in 2009
22. She was subsequently optioned by Appian Way Productions
23. In March 2011, Phil Johnston, a former classmate at Columbia, called Lee to ask her to join him at Disney Animation in Burbank to help him write Wreck-It Ralph
24. It was supposed to be a temporary eight-week writing gig
25. It eventually turned into a much longer commitment
26. First, she was asked to stay on until Ralph was finished
27. She then became involved with Frozen, initially as screenwriter and later as co-director with Chris Buck
28. When Lee was brought on board, she helped transition the film from an action-adventure to “more musical, with more comedy”
29. She worked closely with the songwriters (Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez) in the writing of the script
30. Frozen gave her the opportunity to celebrate “wild and wonderful” girls like her childhood self, and her daughter, Agatha
31. It was also the highest-earning film with a female director in terms of domestic earnings
32. This was until it was surpassed by Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman
33. On March 12, 2015, Disney announced that Lee and Buck would co-direct a full length sequel to Frozen
34. In June 2018, Lee was named the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, following John Lasseter’s exit from Disney
35. Lee married Robert Joseph Monn on May 30, 1999
36. They were married at the Rhode Island Country Club
37. They later divorced
38. They have a daughter Agatha Lee Monn, who was born in 2003
39. Lee’s daughter voices pre-teen Anna for the middle verse of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” in Frozen
40. Lee and her daughter now live in the San Fernando Valley in California