Jennifer Lynch

"I had a most wonderful and magical time directing tonight's episode of ABC'S ONCE UPON A TIME. Tune in!!!!"

- Jennifer Lynch on Instagram src

Jennifer Lynch is an episode director of ABC's Once Upon a Time.

Early Life
Lynch was born in Philadelphia. She is the daughter of artist and filmmaker David Lynch, who is responsible for her Finnish ancestry, and painter Peggy Reavey. She began practicing Transcendental Meditation at the age of six.

Career
Lynch was educated in Los Angeles and Michigan at Interlochen Arts Academy. Together with her mother, Lynch made a brief appearance in her father's debut feature film Eraserhead, but her appearance was not included in the final cut. Lynch subsequently worked as a production assistant on Blue Velvet (1986), also directed by her father.

In 1993, Lynch directed the music video "Living in the Rose" by the British rock band New Model Army.

Lynch's commissioned screenplay for Boxing Helena, which she would later go on to direct, attracted many actresses, including singer Madonna. Sherilyn Fenn, one of the stars in her father's television series Twin Peaks and the film Wild at Heart, was ultimately cast as leading character Helena. Kim Basinger was also attached and was famously sued after resigning from the project. The controversy surrounding that case, as well as feminist outcry over Helena's sadistic subject matter and accusations of nepotism, accompanied the movie's critical drubbing upon its release in 1993.

Following a lengthy hiatus, Lynch returned to the public arena with the film Surveillance and, in October 2008, Surveillance won the top prize at the Festival de Cine de Sitges. A month later, Lynch became the first woman to receive the New York City Horror Film Festival's Best Director award.

Lynch was announced as director of the film Nagin (the film is also known as Hisss) that featured Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat, but the film that was released was not Lynch's work, even though the producers attached her name to the final product.

On March 21, 2010, Lynch was a judge at the International Surrealist Film Festival and she worked as producer for the Corey Brandenstein natural horror film The Compound.

Lynch was scheduled to film Visibility for the Motion Picture Corporation of America in 2011, but this project was not completed. Lynch then directed and co-wrote the 2012 horror film Chained, in which Vincent D'Onofrio stars as a cab-driving serial killer.

Lynch authored The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer to accompany the television show Twin Peaks which was created by her father David Lynch and Mark Frost.

Lynch also directed episodes of many television series such as Finding Carter, Psych, Quantico, Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead, The Last Ship, Wayward Pines, American Horror Story, Once Upon a Time and Hawaii Five-0.

As of 2015, she is also a member of the board of advisers for the Hollywood Horror Museum.

Personal life
Lynch revealed in a 2009 interview that she underwent three spinal surgeries following the release of Boxing Helena due to a car accident that occurred when she was nineteen years of age. In the same interview, Lynch stated that she is a single mother to a thirteen-year-old daughter.