Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn (born May 29, 1949) is an American playwright, writer, poet, and multimedia performance artist.

[1] Moving to San Francisco, California, in 1963, Hagedorn received her education at the American Conservatory Theater training program.

[5] In 1985, 1986, 1989, and 1994 she received MacDowell Colony fellowships, which helped enable her to write the novel Dogeaters, which illuminates many different aspects of Filipino experience, focusing on the influence of America through radio, television, and movie theaters.

[13] Hagedorn, alongside bell hooks, June Jordan, and seven others, won the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund annual Writer's Awards in 1994 and they received $105,000 each.

[16][17] Hagedorn, in collaboration with Two River Theater, is also working on a musical detailing the rise of Jean and June Millington of Fanny.