Her directing and producing credits include the documentaries Who Killed Vincent Chin?, No Más Bebés, My America...or Honk if You Love Buddha, Calavera Highway, Skate Manzanar, Labor Women and the 5-part docuseries Asian Americans.
Tajima-Peña attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, and later received her bachelor's degree cum laude from Harvard University's Radcliffe College, where she majored in East Asian Studies and sociology.
[2] Additionally, she was a film critic for The Village Voice, a cultural commentator for National Public Radio, and the editor of Bridge: Asian American Perspectives.
Her award-winning documentaryNo Mas Bebés uncovers the coercive sterilization of Mexican-origin women at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the 1960s and 70s, and the landmark civil rights lawsuit challenging the practice, Madrigal v. Quilligan.
Tajima-Peña's transmedia curriculum project is Building History 3.0, an interactive exploration of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II using the online video game Minecraft.