Known For
Directing
Born
Sep 19, 1946
Died
Feb 23, 2026
Place of Birth
Los Angeles, California, USA
Credits
19 titles
Ulysses Jenkins
Biography
Ulysses Jenkins was born in 1946, in Los Angeles, California. He studied painting and drawing as an undergraduate at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and later received an MFA in intermedia-video and performance art from Otis Art Institute (now known as Otis College of Art and Design). Prior to enrolling at Otis, from 1970-72 Jenkins worked with the Los Angeles County Probation Department, teaching art to nondelinquent youth, and in 1989, taught video through a gang-intervention program in Oakland. Jenkins is the recipient of numerous awards, including individual artist fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, and named first place in experimental video by the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1990 and 92. His work has been included in major exhibitions, including America is Hard to See (2015), at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Now Dig this!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980 (2012), at the Hammer Museum, and California Video (2008) at the Getty Center. Jenkins is currently Associate Professor in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and an affiliate professor in the African American Studies program at the University of California, Irvine.
Known For
Filmography
In The Midnight Hour
Director
Notions of Freedom
Planet X
Director
Vulnerable
Director
Secrecy: Help Me to Understand
Director
The Nomadics
Director
Mutual Native Duplex
Director
Self Divination
Director
Voices
Self
Peace and Anwar Sadat
Director
Cake Walk
Director
Without Your Interpretation
Director
Dream City
Z-Grass
Director
Inconsequential Doggereal
Director
Remnants of the Watts Festival
Director
Two-Zone Transfer
Director
King David
Director
Mass of Images