About

Jessica Kaye was born in South Africa and raised in Minneapolis. After studying Literature and Performance Studies at Harvard, she earned her MFA in Acting at Columbia. While in New York, she starred in plays and feature films, produced and performed in ribald performance-art parties, and played a soap opera villain on television’s ONE LIFE TO LIVE. 

In 2008, she produced and starred in GARGOYLE, a SAFTA-nominated short film shot in Johannesburg. In 2013, she received an MFA in Film Production from USC. Her short films ANGEL and FABIAN DEBORA, A LIFE FOR ART, screened at numerous festivals. Her short film SHORTAGE was executive-produced by James Franco. 

Kaye is the co-writer/director and lead actor of the feature film INHERITANCE, shot on location in Belize. INHERITANCE premiered at SXSW in 2017 and was released theatrically and on VOD.

In 2019, she completed the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, where she wrote and directed the short film SKATER, about a young figure skater who is possessed by the spirit of her skating idol on the day of a major competition.

A 2019-2020 participant in the Universal Directors Initiative at Universal Studios, she is a co-creator and lead actor in the pilot EVERYONE TOGETHER, which was set to premiere at SXSW March 2020. It won BEST PILOT at Series Fest 2020.

Currently, she is in development on her feature film RAVENOUS about a young, perfectionist ballet dancer struggling with self-harm who relocates to the desert to work with a world renowned choreographer on a career defining dance piece. As their collaboration deepens, the suppressed creature within her begins to emerge and will stop at nothing to break free.