Jessica Makinson is an award-winning director and writer specializing in comedic narratives. Her decades-long on-camera career and improv comedy background fuel her ability to use unusual storytelling and unexpected laughs to tell intimate narratives with emotional truth.

Makinson was selected for the SHOOT 21st Annual New Directors Showcase 2023 and was chosen as a Commercial Directors Diversity Program Finalist 2024. Her commercial work for PacificSource health insurance was awarded a Bronze Telly. Makinson’s short films have screened around the world at festivals including Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Fantasia Film Festival, Citizen Jane, and Cucalorus.

After being involved at the development level on episodic series Halfway Home, Makinson sold her first pilot, Jenn Jeffries: Professional Stalker to Comedy Central. Her feature script DisPlaceMent was twice a second-round selection for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2020/2021 and a Semi-finalist in the 2020 Screencraft Screenwriting Fellowship. 

She is currently in pre-production on the short film OKAY (The Hive) which has garnered fiscal sponsorship through The Film Collaborative, and was a finalist for the Filmmakers Alliance LA Short Film Grant 2024, as well as a FilmQuest script finalist in 2023.

Makinson is a proud alumna and veteran performer at iOWest and UCB LA. She has been a series regular on South Park, Trigger Happy TV, Joe Schmo 2, and Halfway Home. Other TV credits include recurring roles on Maron, Modern Family, Psych, and The Great Indoors. She lives in Los Angeles with her editor husband and 3-year-old son, who is already a promising director.