Tajima-PeÒa was born in Chicago and raised in Altadena, California, where she graduated from John Muir High School in the class of 1976. She received a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies and Sociology Cum Laude, from Harvard-Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA, in 1980. She is currently the Graduate Director of the Masters Program in Social Documentation and an associate professor of community studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her honors include an Academy Award nomination for Best Feature Documentary, a Peabody Award, a Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, the Alpert Award for Film/Video, the James Wong Howe "Jimmie" Award, the Justice in Action Award, and two International Documentary Association Achievement Awards (one shared), the Media Achievement Award from MANAA, the Steve Tatsukawa Memorial Award and the APEX Excellence in the Arts Award. She has twice earned Fellowships in Documentary Film from both the Rockefeller Foundation and the New York Foundation on the Arts. Her works have been broadcast around the world and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, London Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, the Whitney Biennial and many other venues.)