“Jan Jalenak, who wrote and directed this engrossing comedy of sexual manners, proves that there are still tales to tell of young single people bravely striding onto the battlefield of dating, decades after the sexual revolution.”
— Anita Gates, The New York Times, on Jan Jalenak’s full-length play TOUCH MY FACE
BABY DOLL FILMS, founded in 2018, is an independent film and theater company dedicated to creating stories that explore the messiness of life and heartbreak with love and humor.
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Jan Jalenak grew up in Memphis, TN, is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio and New Circle Theater Company and a graduate of New York University. Her acting training with the inimitable Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in the 80’s instilled a fearlessness to dig deeper with both her acting and writing.
As a playwright, her plays have been featured in venues throughout New York City, including Greenwich Street Theater, Naked Angels, The Gene Frankel Theatre, The Robert Moss Theater, The Ohio Theater, New Georges, UBU Rep, Studio Theater, Playwrights’ Horizons, and The Actors Studio.
YOU CAN KISS ME is Jan’s premiere film under BABY DOLL FILMS, followed by A SHATTERING. She has begun pre-production with two upcoming film projects, and has several stage scripts in varying stages of development.
“Jalenak is plainly a talent to be reckoned with. Alternately wry and knowing and poignantly innocent... Jalenak consistently balances on that edge between toughness and vulnerability. A performance, and a name to remember.”
— Martha Dubose, The Independent, on Jan Jalenak’s performance in Andre Degas’ AMERICAN AUTOBAHN
The original BABY DOLL FILMS logo, circa 1997.
Jan, lovingly caricatured as “large and in charge” while pregnant with her daughter, a gift from actress Deirdre Lewis.