Angela Garcia Combs

Angela Garcia Combs is an American writer and director, born in New York to a Southern Catholic Mexican-Irish family. Her father, Charles Combs Jr. was a jazz musician and scientist and her mother, Carmen Garcia, a homemaker and found objects artist. She is the fourth of five children and spent her early childhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. When she was 8 years old her father moved the family to California to work for the Government in a classified capacity on weapons systems. Her parents divorced shortly thereafter and her mother remarried to Alan Thoemmes, a Russian immigrant who worked a variety of jobs to support the family, including as a College English Professor. Her mother and step-father divorced after 6 years and Garcia Combs became an emancipated minor at the age of 16, finishing high school and working as a waitress at Marie Callender's along with her siblings. Garcia Combs married and divorced early, becoming a single mother of three by the age of 28. She raised her three children in Los Angeles as she returned to higher education and a career in the arts. She studied theatre and film with a concentration in women's studies at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and graduated Magna cum Laude in 1997. She optioned her first screenplay "A Better Mother" to Carlton America upon graduating from UCLA and shortly thereafter optioned another, "Random Acts" to Henry Jaglom of Rainbow Films and had a deal to direct with RKO. Her feature film, "Nothing Special" (2010) was curated by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for their "Permanent Core Collection" and stars Karen Black in her last starring role. "Nothing Special" received international distribution, critical acclaim and 12 festival awards, including the Best Feature award at "The Female Eye" the Toronto based international film festival dedicated to films directed by women. Her oldest son, Asher Huey is labor organizer and progressive activist in Washington, DC. Her daughter, Julia Garcia Combs, is an actress and artist living in Los Angeles. Her youngest son, Caleb Huey, is a musician living in Nashville, TN. Garcia Combs lives in Hollywood with her husband, Richard Wilson.