Film producer and director, Jan Sharp was educated in convent boarding schools and studied Fine Arts at Melbourne University in Australia. She later undertook a director's apprenticeship at Film Australia before joining the Australian Broadcasting Commission as part of a team making the high-rating documentary series Chequerboard. Following the birth of her first daughter, Sharp returned to Film Australia as associate producer. She also directed two series of documentaries on the problems of adolescence. The first series won the AFI Documentary Award in 1984; the second won the same award the following year. Around this period Sharp worked concurrently in print and radio. In addition to contributing a weekly Saturday column to the Australian called 'The Showbiz Column', she also presented cultural programs for Radio Australia and wrote radio magazine pieces for the ABC Science Unit.
Sharp temporarily left Film Australia to work with her then husband Phillip Noyce (q.v.) on his first feature Newsfront (q.v., 1978), returning to the organisation as producer. In 1986, she produced her first feature film The Good Wife, followed by Echoes of Paradise. In 1995, Sharp co-wrote and produced Wide Sargasso Sea (q.v.) for New Line Cinema. During the late 1990s/early 2000s, she worked on a number of video documentaries including an inquiry into the nature of celebrity culture and a video diary of her battle with cancer (Damage Control). Sharp was the writer/producer of all her films except for The Good Wife.
