Born and raised in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Tanya Hamilton and her younger brother were raised by her mother and grandmother; she grew up without knowing her father, a policeman. When Hamilton was seven, her mother moved to Jamaica, and after establishing roots there, sent for her children a year later. Painting was Hamilton's first love, and she made it her focus at the Duke Ellington School of Art before shifting her attention to filmmaking as an undergraduate at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She later attended Columbia University's Film School. She returned to Jamaica to make her 1995 short, "The Killers," which earned the top award for short films at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival, as well as the Best Female Director award from the Directors Guild of America."Night Catches Us" was inspired by the life of her mother's friend, Carol Lawson-Green, who was one of six students who entered the White House in 1965 and demanded that President Lyndon Johnson send troops to Selma, AL to contend with racial violence there. All six individuals were given the maximum sentence - six months or more of jail time - and the impact of that incident upon their lives became a subject of fascination for Hamilton. For the next decade, she developed the project - initially titled "Stringbean and Marcus" - with the help of various individual artists grants, including the first Pew Fellowship in the Arts Grant for a screenwriter.The film, which starred Anthony Mackie as a former Black Panther who returns to Philadelphia in 1976 after a four-year absence. Suspected by his fellow activists of selling out the Panthers to the government, he finds solace in the widow (Kerry Washington) of his best friend, but her daughter needs to know more about her past and Mackie's involvement in it. "Night" was received with overwhelming praise at festivals, including the Grand Jury Prize nomination at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, and won top honors at the New Orleans and Seattle Film Festivals. The positive response prompted Magnolia Pictures to pick up the film for theatrical distribution. In December 2010, Hamilton received nominations from the Gotham Awards and Independent Spirit Awards for Breakthrough Director and Best First Film, respectively.