Name	Kimberly Peirce
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	September 8, 1967
Place of Birth	Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Famous for

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Peirce grew up in a trailer park.She graduated from Miami Sunset High School in Miami, Florida and attended the University of Chicago,earning a degree in English and Japanese Literature.[citation needed] She moved for several years to Kobe, Japan, working as a photographer and model.[citation needed] Upon returning to America, she enrolled at Columbia University,earning an MFA in film.Initially, Peirce pursued a story about a female soldier in drag during the American Civil War for her thesis,but eventually nixed the plan due to a lack of personal connection with the story.

While attending Columbia, Peirce read a Village Voice article about Brandon Teena, a transman raped and murdered in Falls City, Nebraska.Switching from her original thesis project, Peirce traveled to Falls City, where she researched and attended the trial of the two homicide suspects.The subsequent film short she made for her thesis in 1995 was nominated by Columbia faculty for a Princess Grace Award, and received an Astrea Production Grant.That grant and her involvement with the Sundance Institute;'s 1997 Sundance Filmmakers, Writers and Producers Labs helped her develop the short into the 1999 feature film Boys Don't Cry.