Joan Tewkesbury's journey in the entertainment industry began at the tender age of ten, when she started dancing in the film "The Unfinished Dance". A few years later, she took on a variety of roles, including an Ostrich, an Indian, and Mary Martin's flying understudy in Jerome Robbins' production of "Peter Pan".
As she grew older, Tewkesbury attended the University of Southern California, where she developed her skills as a choreographer, theatre director, and script supervisor. Her work in the film industry eventually led her to become a writer and director, with notable projects including "Thieves Like Us", "Nashville", and "Old Boyfriends", which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival's Director's Fortnight.
In addition to her work in feature films, Tewkesbury has written, directed, and produced numerous projects for cable and network television, including "The Tenth Month", "Acorn People", "Cold Sassy Tree", "Sudie and Simpson", "Wild Texas Wind", "The Stranger", "On Promised Land", and "Elysian Fields". She also served as a consulting producer for the CBS series "The Guardian".
For the stage, Tewkesbury wrote, directed, and choreographed "Dance Card" for the Oregon Ballet Theatre, wrote and directed "Jammed" for the Edinburgh Festival, and wrote, directed, and produced "Retrospective" at the Manhattan Theatre Source in New York.
In recent years, Tewkesbury has developed a unique class, "Designed Obstacles, Spontaneous Response", which she has presented at various institutions and film labs across the United States, Israel, Europe, and Japan. She has also worked as a creative advisor for the Sundance Institute's Native Lab, Directors and Screenwriters Lab, and has created a Writers Forum at Los Luceros in Alcalde, New Mexico.
Throughout her career, Tewkesbury's work has been recognized with numerous awards and nominations, including honors from the Writers Guild, Humanitas, Golden Globes, British Academy Awards, Cable Ace, Academy Awards, and the Los Angeles Critics Association.
