Jill Bauer

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Jill Bauer is a journalist, documentary filmmaker, and non-fiction author. She co-directed two documentaries with Ronna Gradus: Sexy Baby (2012) and Hot Girls Wanted (2015). She also wrote a humor book about divorce called From ‘I Do’ to ‘I’ll Sue’: An Irreverent Compendium for Survivors of Divorce (1993).

Sexy Baby won the Founders Prize for Best Film by a First-Time Director at the 2012 Traverse City Film Festival. Hot Girls Wanted was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 2015 and for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival that same year.

A early turning point in her life came when she interviewed Barbara Walters at age 15, which encouraged her to keep asking questions. She earned a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 1985.

Her career began at Esquire as a research assistant, a role she held until 1993. In 1995 she started SmartKid magazine for parents of children aged 7–13 and served as its managing editor until 1997. Over the next three decades she worked as a journalist and editor for outlets including the Miami Herald, Miami Magazine, The New York Times, and The Dallas Morning News, with a focus on relationships at the Miami Herald.

From 2006 to 2009 she contributed to the University of Miami Magazine. Since 2008 she has been a director and producer for Two to Tangle Productions. She met Gradus at the Miami Herald in 2008, and they later left to collaborate on films together.

Sexy Baby premiered at Tribeca in 2012 and was produced by Two to Tangle. The film grew from Gradus’s experience photographing college-age dancers for the Miami Herald and aims to spark an emotional reaction and conversation about sexiness in the digital age.

Hot Girls Wanted premiered at Sundance in 2014 and was released on Netflix in May 2015. The film follows several 18- to 25-year-old women in the amateur porn industry. The creators initially planned to examine male viewers on campus but shifted focus to the young women after learning what audiences were watching.