Ulysses Jenkins
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- September 19, 1946
- Died
- February 23, 2026
- Birthplace
- Los Angeles, California, USA
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.
Filmography
In The Midnight Hour 2010
Director
Notions of Freedom 2007
Actor, Director
Planet X 2006
Director
Vulnerable 2000
Director
Secrecy: Help Me to Understand 1994
Director
The Nomadics 1991
Director
Mutual Native Duplex 1990
Director
Self Divination 1989
Director
Peace and Anwar Sadat 1985
Director
Without Your Interpretation 1983
Director
Cake Walk 1983
Director
Z-Grass 1983
Director
Dream City 1983
Actor, Director, Producer, Writer, Editor, Camera Operator
Inconsequential Doggereal 1981
Director
Remnants of the Watts Festival 1980
Director
Two-Zone Transfer 1979
Director
King David 1978
Director
Mass of Images 1978
Actor, Director
Voices 1985
as Self
Credits from TMDB.