Dunham was born in New York City. Her father, Carroll Dunham, is a painter, and her mother, Laurie Simmons, is an artist and photographer, and a member of The Pictures Generation, known for her use of dolls and dollhouse furniture in her photographs of setup interior scenes. Her father is Protestant and of mostly English ancestry, and her mother is Jewish; Dunham has described herself as feeling "very culturally Jewish, although that's the biggest cliche for a Jewish woman to say." The Dunham family are cousins of the Tiffany family, prominent in the jewelry trade.
Controversy
Upon release, Girls was met with criticism regarding the all-white main cast in the otherwise culturally diverse setting of New York City (the only black actors in the pilot were a homeless man and a taxi driver, and the only Asian actress had the sole trait of being good at Photoshop). Agreeing that there is a lack of racial diversity on Girls, a comment from The Huffington Post argued that the issue is the industry as a whole.  Lesley Arfin, a writer for the show, responded sarcastically to the controversy with the tweeted comment about a movie that highlights an African-American girl's rise from incestuous sexual abuse while living in Harlem: "What really bothered me most about Precious was that there was no representation of ME." Arfin later deleted the comment following criticism on social media claiming her tweet was racist.  Dunham spoke publicly about the issues on several occasions. In an interview with IndieWire, she said:  I am a half-Jew, half-WASP, and I wrote two Jews and two WASPs. Something I wanted to avoid was tokenism in casting. If I had one of the four girls, if, for example, she was African-American, I feel like -- not that the experience of an African-American girl and a white girl are drastically different, but there has to be specificity to that experience [that] I wasn't able to speak to. I really wrote the show from a gut-level place, and each character was a piece of me or based on someone close to me. And only later did I realize that it was four white girls. As much as I can say it was an accident, it was only later as the criticism came out, I thought, 'I hear this and I want to respond to it.' And this is a hard issue to speak to because all I want to do is sound sensitive and not say anything that will horrify anyone or make them feel more isolated, but I did write something that was super-specific to my experience, and I always want to avoid rendering an experience I can't speak to accurately.  Donald Glover guest starred as Sandy, a black Republican and Hannah's love interest, in the first two episodes of season two, which was criticized as tokenism in response to the initial backlash from the first season.

Q: What controversy has Dunham been involved in?
A: Upon release, Girls was met with criticism regarding the all-white main cast in the otherwise culturally diverse setting of New York City

Q: How did she respond to that?
A: I really wrote the show from a gut-level place, and each character was a piece of me or based on someone close to me.

Q: Did she diversify the cast after that?
A: Donald Glover guest starred as Sandy, a black Republican and Hannah's love interest, in the first two episodes of season two, which was criticized as tokenism in response

Q: Were there other controversies about Girls?
A: Lesley Arfin, a writer for the show, responded sarcastically to the controversy with the tweeted comment about a movie that highlights an African-American girl's rise

Q: Rise to what?
A: an African-American girl's rise from incestuous sexual abuse while living in Harlem:

Q: Was she referring to a real movie?
A: "What really bothered me most about Precious was that there was no representation of ME."

Q: What other controversies has Lena Dunham been involved with?
A: unknown
Were ther any other interesting comments on the program's lack of diversity?
Agreeing that there is a lack of racial diversity on Girls, a comment from The Huffington Post argued that the issue is the industry as a whole.
Agreeing that there is a lack of racial diversity on Girls, a comment from The Huffington Post argued that the issue is the industry as a whole.