Lena Dunham

"Girls" Season 3 TV Series UK Premiere - Arrivals

Dunham in 2014, photo by PrPhotos

Place of Birth: New York City, New York, U.S.

Date of Birth: May 13, 1986

Ethnicity:
*father – English, with distant Irish, remote Scottish, Welsh, and German
*mother – Ashkenazi Jewish

Lena Dunham is an American actress, filmmaker, and writer. She is known for her film Tiny Furniture and the series Girls.

Lena is the daughter of Laurie Simmons, an artist, photographer, and filmmaker, from New York, and Carroll Dunham, a painter, from Old Lyme, Connecticut. Lena’s father has English, a small amount of Irish, and remote Scottish, Welsh, and German, ancestry. Lena’s mother is Ashkenazi Jewish, of Russian Jewish and Austrian Jewish descent. Lena has described herself as Jewish.

Lena is married to British-Peruvian musician Luis Felber. She is the sister of writer, actor, and activist Cyrus Grace Dunham. Her paternal four times great-grandfather was businessperson and economist Edward Kellogg.

Lena’s paternal grandfather was Carroll Dunham IV (the son of Carroll Dunham III and Ruth Harper Pilling). Lena’s grandfather Carroll was born in Massachusetts. Lena’s great-grandfather Carroll was the son of Carroll Dunham, Jr. and Margaret Worcester Dows. Ruth was the daughter of James Constantine Pilling and Mary Lois Harper.

Lena’s paternal grandmother was Carol Marguerite Reynolds (the daughter of Donald Grant Reynolds and Kathryn D. Harding). Carol was born in New Hampshire. Lena’s great-grandfather Donald was the son of Hayden Lord Reynolds and Hattie Florence Warner. Kathryn was the daughter of Lyman Darius Harding and Nora D. Daniels, whose mother was born in Cork, Ireland.

Lena’s maternal grandfather was Samuel Ira Simmons (the son of Louis Simonoff and Lena Rubin). Samuel was born in New York, to Russian Jewish parents.

Lena’s maternal grandmother was Dorothy Carole “Dottie” Trussel (the daughter of Henry Trussel and Mildred A. Hyman). Dorothy was born in New York. Henry was a Russian Jewish immigrant. Mildred was the daughter of Austrian Jewish parents, Jacob Hyman and Regina Seltinworth.

Sources: https://www.jpost.com

Genealogies of Lena Dunham – http://gw.geneanet.org
https://www.geni.com

Genealogies of Lena Dunham (focusing on her father’s side) – http://nagelhistory.com
https://www.wikitree.com

Obituary of Lena’s paternal grandmother, Carol Marguerite (Reynolds) Dunham – http://articles.courant.com

Obituaries of Lena’s maternal grandfather, Samuel Ira Simmons – http://www.nytimes.com

Lena’s maternal great-grandparents, Louis Simonoff and Lena Rubin, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

adam driver

Dunham with Adam Driver in 2013, photo by kathclick/Bigstock.com

17 Responses

  1. jackson9 says:

    I believe Lena Dunham’s maternal grandmother is Dorothy Carole Trussel, who married Samuel Ira Simmons sometime in 1943. She is the daughter of Russian Jewish father Henry A. Trussel (1883) and Mildred Hyman, who was born in New York. Mildred was the daughter of Austrian Jewish parents Jacob Hyman and Regina Seltinworth.

  2. jackson9 says:

    Lena Dunham is at least 1/32 Irish. Lena Dunham’s father is Carroll Dunham, mother is Carol M Reynold, mother is Kathryn D. Harding, mother is Nora D. Daniels (as it says) but her mother is Catherine Scanlon (July-1830-1904) born in Cork Ireland and died in Connecticut, USA. She was the daughter of James Scanlon.

  3. Pegzi says:

    Correction: you forgot to add spawn of Satan to her ethnicity

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