Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal


Naomi Foner is an American screenwriter, director, and former wife of Stephen Gyllenhaal. She is the mother of actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Early life and education

Foner was born in New York City, the daughter of doctors Ruth and Samuel Achs. Her parents were both of Jewish ancestry. Her aunt was Freda Hertz, a lawyer. She was raised in a family of "high-achieving New York Jews." Her grandparents immigrated from Eastern Europe.
She attended Barnard College in New York City, graduating with a BA degree in English. She later earned an MA degree in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University.

Career

She has written the screenplays for several feature films, including Running on Empty, Losing Isaiah, and most recently Bee Season. She was the Naomi referenced in the line "...what about Naomi?" at the end of each Love of Chair segment of The Electric Company, where she was an associate producer for two seasons.
In 2013, she made her directorial debut with Very Good Girls, starring Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival before attaining online and theatrical distribution in the U.S. with Tribeca Film. She collaborated on a script for an American-Chinese co-production titled Moon Flower of Flying Tigers, which was to be co-produced by Ann An and Paula Wagner and based upon the book by Gao Demin.

Personal life

Naomi Foner's first husband was Eric Foner, a historian and Columbia University professor, whom she married in 1965 and divorced in 1977. Her second husband was film director Stephen Gyllenhaal, whom she married in 1977 and from whom she was divorced in 2009. They have collaborated professionally and have two children together, actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.