Rose Troche (; ; born 1964) is an American film and television director, television producer, and screenwriter. Early life and education Troche was born to Puerto Rican parents and grew up on the north side of Chicago. In an interview she stated, "My parents thought moving to the suburbs was a sign of success," and "We were always the family that made everyone say, 'There goes the neighborhood.'" She and her family moved to the suburbs when she was a teen. She started working part-time at a movie theater where her interest in film developed. She earned her undergraduate degree in art history from the University of Illinois at Chicago and went on to get a graduate degree in film. Personal life Troche is a lesbian. She met Guinevere Turner her then partner while she was making Gabriella (1991 -1993). They began to work on a film based on their own experiences and their friends in the Chicago lesbian community, which they originally titled "Ely and Max," but was changed to Go Fish. By 1993, Troche and Turner ended their relationship and Troche moved to New York where she wrote several scripts. Rose Troche says mixing business and romance on a lesbian film set can be a recipe for disaster. Turner and Troche detail how their breakup during the middle of Go Fish's production was not only difficult for them personally but also trying for their cast and crew, who felt compromised by the fighting couple's palpable tension on the set. Troche lived in London from (1997–1999) until she returned to United States to direct The Safety of Objects (2001). To make sure she would not forget the film's lesson, she had "remember that this life is short" tattooed on the inside of her left wrist, in Spanish, as she was writing the script. Career Troche began her professional filmmaking career in the 1990s. Troche is just one of several lesbian directors who launched their careers with independent gay-themed films and have gone on to find work in Hollywood, where women make up just 12% of the Directors Guild of America membership. Early career While studying at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Troche made several short films while in school such as Let's Go Back to My Apartment and Have Sex (1990), This War Is Not Over (1991) and Gabriella series of short films in (1991–1993). Rose Troche did