section_path: Early life and education
section_name: Early life and education
paragraph_text: Early life and education
  
  Jeffrey Lance Baena was born in Miami on June 29, 1977, to Barbara (later Stern) and Scott Baena. He was raised in a secular Jewish family in the suburbs of Kendall and Coral Gables, where he enjoyed being surrounded by Latin and Caribbean cultures; he later said that he "felt a sense of community" there, a contrast to the negative perception of drug cartel violence. Baena's great-grandparents, who were Spanish speakers born in Turkey, had owned a farm in upstate New York; his parents were from New York City and had moved to Miami due to his father's work. His father is a lawyer who was appointed to the Committee for Economic Development by Richard Nixon as a college senior before moving into bankruptcy law. Baena's parents were divorced, which he credited in part with informing his dark sense of comedy. His first stepmother was manic depressive and, under Florida's Baker Act, was frequently institutionalized but then released, with Baena later commenting on systemic challenges in mental health care. He had a brother and two step-siblings.
  
  After attending Killian High School, Baena graduated from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in film, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue directing. Without planning to do so, he achieved a minor in medieval studies at NYU after taking multiple classes when he "was hard-core into the alchemy shit". He also took classes relating to philosophy.
  
  Jeffrey Lance Baena was born in Miami on June 29, 1977, to Barbara (later Stern) and Scott Baena. He was raised in a secular Jewish family in the suburbs of Kendall and Coral Gables, where he enjoyed being surrounded by Latin and Caribbean cultures; he later said that he "felt a sense of community" there, a contrast to the negative perception of drug cartel violence. Baena's great-grandparents, who were Spanish speakers born in Turkey, had owned a farm in upstate New York; his parents were from New York City and had moved to Miami due to his father's work. His father is a lawyer who was appointed to the Committee for Economic Development by Richard Nixon as a college senior before moving into bankruptcy law. Baena's parents were divorced, which he credited in part with informing his dark sense of comedy. His first stepmother was manic depressive and, under Florida's Baker Act, was frequently institutionalized but then released, with Baena later commenting on systemic challenges in mental health care. He had a brother and two step-siblings.
  
  After attending Killian High School, Baena graduated from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in film, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue directing. Without planning to do so, he achieved a minor in medieval studies at NYU after taking multiple classes when he "was hard-core into the alchemy shit". He also took classes relating to philosophy.