Black Directors
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Spike Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957, in Atlanta, Georgia. At a very young age, he moved from pre-civil rights Georgia, to Brooklyn, New York. Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father was a jazz musician, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He attended school in Morehouse College in Atlanta and developed his film making skills at Clark Atlanta University. After graduating from Morehouse, Lee attended the Tisch School of Arts graduate film program. He made a controversial short, The Answer (1980), a reworking of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), a ten-minute film. Lee went on to produce a 45-minute film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983) which won a student Academy Award. In 1986, Spike Lee made the film, She's Gotta Have It (1986), a comedy about sexual relationships. The movie was made for $175,000, and earned $7 million at the box office, which launched his career and allowed him to found his own production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. His next movie was School Daze (1988), which was set at a historically black school, focused mostly on the conflict between the school and the Fraternities, of which he was a strong critic, portraying them as materialistic, irresponsible, and uncaring. With his School Daze (1988) profits, Lee went on to make his landmark film, Do the Right Thing (1989), a movie based specifically his own neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The movie portrayed the racial tensions that emerge in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood on one very hot day. The movie garnered Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay, for Danny Aiello for supporting actor, and sparked a debate on racial relations. Lee went on to produce and direct the jazz biopic Mo' Better Blues (1990), the first of many Spike Lee films to feature Denzel Washington, including the biography of Malcolm X (1992), in which Washington portrayed the civil rights leader. The movie was a success, and garnered an Oscar nomination for Washington. The pair would work together again on He Got Game (1998), an excursion into the collegiate world showing the darker side of college athletic recruiting, as well as the 2006 film Inside Man (2006). Spike Lee's role as a documentarian has expanded over the years, highlighted by his participation in Lumière and Company (1995), the Oscar-nominated 4 Little Girls (1997), to his Peabody Award-winning biographical adaptation of Black Panther leader in A Huey P. Newton Story (2001), through his 2005 Emmy Award-winning examination of post-Katrina New Orleans in When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) and its follow-up five years later If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise (2010). Through his production company 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks, Lee continues to create and direct both independent films and projects for major studios, as well as working on story development, creating an internship program for aspiring filmmakers, releasing music, and community outreach and support. He is married to Tonya Lewis Lee, and they have two sons, Satchel and Jackson.- Director
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Steve McQueen was born on 9 October 1969 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). He is married to Bianca Stigter. They have two children.- Producer
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Son of Danny Singleton, a mortgage broker, and Sheila Ward, a pharmaceutical company sales executive, and raised in separate households by his unmarried parents, John Singleton attended the Film Writing Program at USC, after graduating from high school in 1986. While studying there, he won three writing awards from the university, which led to a contract with Creative Artists Agency during his sophomore year. Columbia Pictures bought his script for Boyz n the Hood (1991) and budgeted it at $7 million. Singleton noted that much of the story comes from his own experiences in South Central LA and credited his parents with keeping him off the street.- Producer
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Antoine Fuqua is an American film director, known for his work in the film Training Day as well as The Replacement Killers, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Shooter, Brooklyn's Finest, Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer.
He has directed music videos for such artists as Arrested Development, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Toni Braxton, Pras Michel and Usher. He was nominated for MTV's Best Rap Video for Heavy D & the Boyz. He also won two Music Video Production Awards: The Young Generators Award, for his work on Coolio's rap video "Gansta Paradise" and the Sinclair Tenebaum Olesiuk and Emanual Award for the trailer to the hit feature film Dangerous Minds (1995). Among his many commercial credits are Wings for Men, Big Star Jeans, Miller Genuine Draft, Reebok, Toyota, Armani and Stanley Tools.- Director
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Felix Gary Gray is an African-American music video director, film producer and film director from New York City known for directing films such as Friday, Men in Black: International, Be Cool, The Fate of the Furious, Set It Off, The Negotiator, Straight Outta Compton and The Italian Job. He directed 22 music videos.- Director
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Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on April 13, 1944, Charles Burnett moved with his family to the Watts area of Los Angeles at an early age. He describes the community of having a robust mythical connection with the South as a result of having so many Southern transplants, an atmosphere which has informed much of his work. Burnett went to UCLA, where he earned his Masters of Fine Arts in Filmmaking. There, he was greatly influenced by professors Elyseo Taylor-creator of the Ethno-Communications department-and Basil Wright-the English documentarian famous for Night Mail and Songs of Ceylon. He became fast friends with fellow future greats like Haile Gerima (Sankofa), and Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust), collaborating with them and others on many projects. Burnett cites Jean Renoir, Satyajit Ray, and Sidney Lumet (The Pawnbroker) as important influences. In 1988, Burnett received the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the "genius grant"), which helped him support his young family and concentrate on his then, newest script. With Danny Glover parlaying his success in Lethal Weapon, they wrangled funding for the production of Burnett's To Sleep With Anger. Glover, playing a vaguely supernatural Southern trickster overstaying his welcome while visiting family, found perhaps his most critically acclaimed role. It won the 1991 Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay for Burnett and Best Actor for Glover. The Library of Congress selected Killer of Sheep and To Sleep With Anger to be inducted into the National Film Registry. The National Society of Film Critics honored Burnett for best screenplay for To Sleep With Anger, making him the first African-American to win in this category in the group's 25year history. While the Los Angeles Times reported that Burnett's movie reminded viewers of Anton Chekov, Time magazine wrote: "If Spike Lee's films are the equivalent of rap music - urgent, explosive, profane, then Burnett's movie is good, old urban blues." The film also received a Special Jury Recognition Award at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival and a Special Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Both Burnett and Glover were nominated for New York Film Critics Circle Awards. In 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival honored Burnett with a retrospective, Witnessing For Everyday Heroes, presented at New York's Walter Reade Theater of Lincoln Center. Burnett has been awarded grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the J. P. Getty Foundation. He is also the winner of the American Film Institute's Maya Deren Award, and one of the very few people ever to be honored with Howard University's Paul Robeson Award for achievement in cinema. The Chicago Tribune has called him "one of America's very best filmmakers" and the New York Times named him "the nation's least known great filmmaker and most gifted black director." Burnett has even had a day named after him - the mayor of Seattle declared February 20, 1997, as Charles Burnett Day. Burnett directed a documentary on Nat Turner and one chapter (Warming by The Devil's Fire) of the six part documentary, The Blues, a production of Martin Scorsese's CPA Productions with OffLine Entertainment and in November of 2017 Charles Burnett received an Academy Award for his life's work. His latest film is entitled, "The Power To Heal", a documentary about the integration of hospitals during the Civil Rights Era.- Director
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Michael Schultz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Cooley High (1975), Car Wash (1976) and Krush Groove (1985). He has been married to Lauren Jones since 6 December 1965. They have two children.- Director
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- Camera and Electrical Department
Ernest Roscoe Dickerson A.S.C., aka. Ernest R. Dickerson, is an American film director and cinematographer. As a cinematographer, he is known for his frequent collaborations with Spike Lee. As a director, he is known for films such as Juice (1992), Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), Bones (2001) and Never Die Alone (2004). He has also directed several episodes of acclaimed television series such as Once Upon a Time (2011), The Wire (2002), Dexter (2006), and The Walking Dead (2010).- Actor
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Carl Franklin studied history and dramatic arts at UC Berkeley. After several years as a television actor with guest shots, roles in TV movies, miniseries, and appearing as a regular on a few unsuccessful series, he returned to school and received his master's degree in directing from the American Film Institute. He was then hired by Roger Corman's Concorde Films because they were impressed with his thesis film.
Although it took several years, in 1992 Franklin made his directorial breakthrough with the crime drama One False Move (1991), the story of a manhunt for three small-time criminals after a drug deal that had gone bad. The film also earned him the New Generation Award by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 1992, the MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker and the IFP Spirit Award for Best Director in 1993.
Franklin wrote and directed Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). Despite rave reviews from the critics, the film failed to attract an audience. In 1998 Franklin directed the adaptation of Anna Quindlen's autobiographical novel One True Thing (1998) with Meryl Streep, Renée Zellweger, and William Hurt. This film, too, had difficulty at the box office, but earned Streep Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as a mother dying of cancer.
He returned to television for a few years directing the series Partners (1995). In 2002 he returned to films with High Crimes (2002).- Director
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Timothy Kevin Story was born on March 13, 1970 in Los Angeles, California. Attended Westchester High School in Los Angeles, California with jazz pianist Eric Reed and actresses Regina King and Nia Long. Graduated from USC film school.- Director
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- Camera and Electrical Department
Darnell Martin was born on 7 January 1964 in Bronx, New York, USA. She is a director and writer, known for I Like It Like That (1994), Cadillac Records (2008) and Do the Right Thing (1989). She is married to Giuseppe Ducrot.- Producer
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A preeminent force in television entertainment, Paris Barclay has directed nearly 200 episodes of television and was active as a Director/Producer for series including: Station 19, Pitch, Sons of Anarchy, In Treatment, Cold Case, City of Angels and NYPD Blue. He also has directed episodes of a wide variety of series including Scandal, The Good Wife, Empire, House, NCIS: Los Angeles, CSI, Lost, The Shield, The West Wing and ER; as well as three films: the feature Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood; and the movies for television The Cherokee Kid and The Big Time.
He earned two Emmy Awards and the DGA award for Outstanding Direction of a Drama Series for NYPD Blue, received seven additional Emmy nominations for both producing and directing, and garnered ten other DGA Award nominations for shows as diverse as Glee, In Treatment, The West Wing, House, and most recently Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. With that last nomination, he become one of only a handful of directors who have received Emmy nominations in every narrative category - drama, comedy and limited series. He was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame in 2014, and was made an Honorary Life Member of the Directors Guild in 2021.
A DGA member since 1992, Barclay was the first African-American and openly gay President in the Guild's history. In addition to his two terms as President of the Guild, his service includes numerous terms on the National Board, the Western Directors Council and chairmanship and participation in several committees, including co-chairing the Television Creative Rights Committee, the Return to Work Negotiations Committee, and the African-American Steering Committee. He was honored with the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award in 2007, which is given for providing extraordinary service to the DGA, and in 2021 was given the Honorary Life Member Award, the Guild's highest honor for both service and career achievement. He currently serves as the Guild's Secretary/Treasurer.
A WGA member before he was a DGA member, Barclay co-created and wrote for the CBS series City of Angels with Nicholas Wootton and Steven Bochco, which ran for two years on the network. He co-wrote with James DeMonaco the Showtime pilot Hate, and has written other pilots for CBS and NBC. He wrote with Dustin Lance Black (on his first WGA-credited project) Pedro, a film about the life of AIDS activist Pedro Zamora for MTV, which received a Writers Guild nomination. As a playwright and composer, he has had musical dramas produced by Soho Rep, The Village Theatre, the Signature Theater, and the North Shore Music Theatre among others - including One Red Flower - adapted from soldiers letters written during the Vietnam War. Prior to his career in television and film, Barclay was a sought-after music video director. He created groundbreaking videos for Bob Dylan, the New Kids on the Block, Janet Jackson & Luther Vandross, Harry Connick, Jr. among others. His eight videos for LL Cool J, including the MTV, Billboard, and Grammy-winning "Mama Said Knock You Out," are still widely viewed and imitated today.
In 2022, Paris had six episodes he directed premiere in collaboration with Ryan Murphy: two episodes each of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, The Watcher, and American Horror Story:NYC. In 2023, he filmed two episode of the upcoming Aaron Hernandez biopic series for FX, American Sports Story: Gladiator. He recently wrapped post production on a feature documentary he co-wrote and directed about the famed musician Billy Preston, with interviews from Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Olivia Harrison, Sandra Crouch, and Merry Clayton among others. He is currently in production on two episodes of the second season of the Netflix series of Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story.- Actress
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Kasi Lemmons was born on 24 February 1961 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Harriet (2019), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Candyman (1992). She has been married to Vondie Curtis-Hall since 19 August 1995. They have two children.- Writer
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Malcolm D. Lee was born on 11 January 1970 in the USA. He is a writer and director, known for Girls Trip (2017), The Best Man (1999) and The Best Man: The Final Chapters (2022). He has been married to Camilla Banks since 2000. They have three children.- Director
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Kevin Hooks was born on 19 September 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Innerspace (1987), Last Resort (2012) and Passenger 57 (1992). He is married to Cheryl. They have two children. He was previously married to Regina Hooks.- Director
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Charles Stone III was born in 1966. He is known for Drumline (2002), Paid in Full (2002) and Mr. 3000 (2004).- Director
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Thirty-one years ago, filmmaker Julie Dash broke racial and gender boundaries with her Sundance award-winning film (Best Cinematography) Daughters of the Dust. She became the first African American woman to have a wide theatrical release of her feature film. The Library of Congress placed Daughters of the Dust and her UCLA MFA senior thesis Illusions in the National Film Registry. These two films join a select group of American films preserved and protected as national treasures by the Librarian of Congress. Dash recently designed two rooms for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and VOGUE, In American: An Anthology of Fashion, featured at the NYC Met Gala 2022.- Director
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Cheryl Dunye was born on 13 May 1966 in Liberia. She is a director and producer, known for The Watermelon Woman (1996), The Owls (2010) and Mommy Is Coming (2012).- Director
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- Director
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Rashaad Ernesto Green was born on 19 August 1978 in Bronx, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Premature (2019), Gun Hill Road (2011) and Premature (2008). He was previously married to Maryse Tricia Karunaratne.- Director
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- Editor
Hype Williams was born in July 1970 in Queens, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Belly (1998), Coldplay: Viva La Vida (2008) and Jay-Z Feat. Alicia Keys: Empire State of Mind (2009).- Producer
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Leslie Harris is known for Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992), Bessie Coleman's Dream to Fly (1993) and New York Conversations (2010).- Writer
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Perry was born and raised in New Orleans, to Willie Maxine (Campbell) and Emmitt Perry, Sr. His mother was a church-goer and took Perry along with her once a week. His father was a carpenter and they had a very strained and abusive relationship, which led Perry to suffer from depression as a teenager.
In 1991, he was working an office job, when he saw an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) discussing the therapeutic nature of writing. This inspired him to begin writing and he worked through his bad experiences by writing letters to himself. He adapted his letters into a play, "I Know I've Changed", about domestic abuse. Unfortunately, after renting a theater in Atlanta to put on the play, he failed to attract audiences.
He took on a series of odd jobs and found himself living in his car. But, in 1998, he was given a second chance to stage his play and, this time, he was more business-savvy with his marketing. The play was sold-out and drew attention from investors.
Tyler has gone on to established a successful career as a writer, director and producer for stage, television and film.- Producer
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Salim and Mara Brock Akil acquired a multi-year development deal with Warner Bros. Entertainment, slated to begin in 2016.
Salim is a native of Oakland, California. He wrote and co-produced the film Drylongso (1999) which was featured at the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival. Salim started as a staff writer for Showtime's award-winning "Soulfood" and quickly worked his way up to series Executive Producer, on top of directing and writing several episodes. He has worked as a Director on several other episodic TV series, including UPN's "Girlfriends" CW's/BET's "The Game" and BET's "Being Mary Jane." Additionally, Salim directed the feature film Sparkle (2012) a Sony Pictures remake of the 1974 musical of the same name.- Director
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Millicent Shelton was born on 29 January 1966 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She is a director and writer, known for 30 Rock (2006), The Night Agent (2023) and Titans (2018). She has been married to Donald Samuel since 10 June 1995. They have two children.- Producer
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Anthony Hemingway is known for Red Tails (2012), Underground (2016) and American Crime Story (2016).- Director
- Producer
Director and producer Neema Barnette has engaged audiences with a body of socially compelling and politically charged work that defies the narrow stereotypes of African-Americans usually depicted in entertainment. Working in both television and film, Barnette has earned the respect of peers and critics alike by winning countless accolades.
Barnette recently directed the feature Woman Thou Art Loosed On the 7th Day. The film stars Pam Grier, Blair Underwood, Nicole Jarbari and Sharon Leal and is produced by Neema, Bishop TD Jakes of Jumpin the Broom and Sparkle, and Code Black Entertainment. The movie is a dramatic thriller that explores problems in modern day marriage and the abduction of a little girl. The AMC theater chain theatrically released the feature on April 13th on 129 screens. It premiered as number one for per screen average opening weekend, beating out The Hunger Games. In January 2013, the film was one of three pictures nominated for "Best Independent Feature" by the NAACP Image Awards.
Known for her creativity, in 2010 Neema directed a gospel musical film, Heaven Ain't Hard to Find, starring Kim Whitley, Cliff Powell & Reed McCants. Neema developed a new format for gospel plays by shooting actual locations and combined theater with cinema. The picture aired on paid preview, HBO and BET. In 2008, Neema executive produced Cuttin Da Mustard, an independent feature written and directed by Reed McCants. The film is a comedy but deals seriously with young adult illiteracy and stars Brandon T. Jackson, Sinbad, Charles Dutton, Adrienne Bailon, Keisha Knight Pulliman, Lil Zane, Jonathan Wesley and Chico Benyman. Barnette began 2007 by directing the film My Super Sweet 16: the Movie for MTV Paramount. The picture stars rockers Aly & AJ and singer Ciara. In July 2006, Neema directed the feature film All You've Got for MTV Paramount Films starring Laila Ali and Faizon Love.
For the mini-series Miracle's Boys produced in 2005 for the Noggin network by filmmaker Spike Lee, Neema was the only female director invited to join Spike's directing team along with Laver Burton, Ernest Dickerson and Bill Duke. The project aired in February of that year to rave reviews.
Barnette, a native of Harlem New York, began her career as a stage actress while attending New York's High School for the Performing Arts. After earning a BA from The City College of New York, and an MFA from NYU School of The Arts, she subsequently took a position in Vinnette Carroll's prestigious "Urban Arts Corps" as an actress and directed inner city kids in plays designed to enhance their reading skills. It was then that Neema fell in love with directing. At twenty-one, Neema made her directing debut at Joseph Papps' Public Theatre with THE BLUE JOURNEY by Oyamo. Finding cinema in her work, Papp suggested she enroll in a Third World Cinema program. After graduating from the program, Neema produced an after school special titled TO BE A MAN for ABC Television, for which she won her first Emmy Award.
This award would launch the director onto a path of award-winning work and industry achievement. After graduating from CCNY in 1985, Barnette was awarded acceptance into the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women, where she wrote, produced and directed her first film, Sky Captain, a surrealistic fantasy drama about an urban Peter Pan from the Bronx who was suicidal. This incredibly unique work earned the notice of many among the Hollywood film and television community, and led to One More Hurdle an NBC dramatic special for which Barnette won her first NAACP Image Award. Barnette also lent her vision to a network documentary on domestic violence for NBC, The Silent Crime, which received four local Emmy nominations and won an American Women in Radio & Television award for directing.
In 1986, with a flair for the lighthearted as well as the dramatic, Barnette directed an episode of What's Happening Now which earned her an NAACP image awards nomination. More significantly, the job made Neema the first African American woman in the history of television to direct a sitcom. This critical breakthrough resulted in subsequent directing stints on Hooperman, the royal family, china beach (Peabody award), franks place (Emmy award), the sinbad show, diagnosis murder, multiples of a different world, the Cosby show (Emmy award) and the Cosby mysteries (Emmy nomination, Peabody nomination), and seventh heaven and the Gilmore girls.
On the heels of work on an episode of Cosby, Barnette mounted a new play by Richard Wesley at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Talented Tenth. The success of the workshop production propelled Lynn Meadows to open her off Broadway season with the play with Neema as director. That year the play won 10 Adelco Awards, including Best Director. Also that year, Barnette won an International Monitor Award for Best Director for The Cosby Show episode, 'The Day the Spores Landed.'
Barnette went on to direct several other movies for television, most noteworthy among them, ZORA IS MY NAME (American Playhouse production starring Ruby Dee which won a Lilly Award for Exceptional Representation of African American Images in Film); DIFFERENT WORLDS: AN INTERRACIAL LOVE STORY (four Daytime Emmy nominations, Directors Guild of America nomination for Best Directing); BETTER OFF DEAD (Lifetime Television production starring Mare Winningham and Tyra Ferrell which earned a Cable Ace award nomination); RUN FOR THE DREAM: THE GAIL DEVERS STORY (Showtime Network production starring Lou Gossett Jr. which earned Barnette her fifth NAACP Image Award nomination); SCATTERED DREAMS (for CBS Television Network, starring Tyne Daly and Alicia Silverstone); SIN & REDEMPTION (also for CBS; executive produced by Dick Berg), among others.
The critical acclaim and success of the pictures catapulted Neema into the ranks of a handful of sought after directors whose telefilms brought in high ratings. It also garnered the attention of Frank Price, then chairman of Sony Pictures, who gave Barnette a two-year housekeeping deal to produce, write and direct Listen for the Fig Tree, an original screenplay. This was the second time Neema made history. She became the first African American woman to receive a production DEAL at a major motion picture studio. Neema's three-year deal included developing film and television projects for the studio.
In September of 2000, Barnette signed on as the director and producer of the feature film Civil Brand starring LisaRaye, Mos Def, Da Brat, N'Bushe Wright, Monica Calhoun, MC Light, Reed McCants and Clifton Powell. The film was shot in fifteen days and was completed in May 2002. In June 2002, the film won the Blockbuster Award at the Black Audience Film Festival in Miami. In August 2002, CIVIL BRAND also won the Audience Award and was given a Special Jury Award at the Urban World Film Festival in New York City. The American Film Institute's prestigious International Film Festival selected Civil Brand in November of 2002 in Los Angeles where it was featured in the American Directions division. Also in November of 2002, Civil Brand was chosen as an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and is featured in their American Spectrum Division. The film opened for the Pan African International film festival and won the Festival Award.
Producer Gilbert Cates hired Barnette as a Professor at UCLA's School of Film & Television in 1999, where she teaches a master filmmaking class to the under graduate film students and has created a syllabus and teaches for the MFA Theater department. Neema has been teaching at UCLA for fifteen years and still teaches there. In September of 2002 Neema also became an associate professor at the USC School of Cinema where she taught film production, television development and directing to undergraduate students for seven years while continuing her professional directing and producing career.
In February 2004, Women in Film honored Neema along with Diane Carroll and Delores Robinson at their Breaking Ground Breakfast in Beverly Hills. On November 30, 2009 in New York City, Congressman Charles Rangel declared Neema Barnette Day in her hometown of Harlem. Neema has been featured in American Film, Dga Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Business Weekly, Hollywood Reporter and other periodicals.
Barnette serves on the Executive Board of the DGA African American Steering Committee and is a member of The Black Filmmakers Foundation since its inception. She is also an active AFI alumnus and serves on the panel of the AFI Independent Film committee. Barnette has operated her own production company, Hope Entertainment since 1990 and is Executive Director of Live Theatre Gang, an urban theatre and performance company. She lives between New York and Los Angeles with her husband Reed R. McCants and their daughter.- Writer
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She took a screenwriting course in 1991 out of curiosity and soon found herself immersed in filmmaking. She graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1982. She is an Associate Professor of English at City University of New York's Baruch College where she teaches TV and Film Writing, Journalism and Fiction Writing.- Director
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Rasselas Lakew was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is known for The Athlete (2009).- Director
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Mahamat-Saleh Haroun was born in 1961 in Abéché, Chad. He is a director and writer, known for Dry Season (2006), A Screaming Man (2010) and Our Father (2002).- Producer
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Martin Mhando is known for Maangamizi: The Ancient One (2001), Safari ya Gwalu (2015) and Mama Tumaini (1986).- Director
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Idrissa Ouedraogo was born on 21 January 1954 in Banfora, Upper Volta [now Burkina Faso]. He was a director and writer, known for Yaaba (1989), The Law (1990) and Samba Traoré (1992). He died on 18 February 2018 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.- Producer
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Producer/director Anita Addison was one of the first African-American, female TV executives. She began her career as a director, directing episodes of "Knots Landing," "Quantum Leap," "Freddy's Nightmares," "ER," "Sirens" and "Judging Amy." She also directed made-for-TV movies, including "There Are No Children Here" starring Oprah Winfrey and Keith David and "Deep in My Heart" starring Anne Bancroft. Ms. Addison held executive positions at CBS, Lorimar and Warner Brothers Television and was the executive producer or producer of the TV series "Sisters," "It Had to Be You," "That's Life" and "St. Michael's Crossing."
Addison died at 51 years of age of undisclosed causes. The Academy Award winning film Crash (2004) was dedicated to her by friend, writer and director Paul Haggis.- Producer
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Dr. Omowale Akintunde is renown as a public intellectual, academician, and Emmy-Award winning filmmaker. The critically acclaimed writer/producer/director is a graduate of the conservatory program in filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. His first feature film, "An Inaugural Ride to Freedom," won the 2010 Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Best Documentary-Cultural. His very first short film, "Mama 'n 'Em" (2008) was accepted into the prestigious Hollywood Black Filmmakers Festival and his narrative feature film debut, "Wigger," premiered in April of 2010 to an overflow crowd and rave reviews. Leo Adam Biga, film reviewer for The Reader described the film as, "Dramatic, smart, funny, raw, and real," then went on to say that Omaha "has now produced two of cinema's best works on the subject of race as Wigger join's 1967's "A Time for Burning.'"
Dr. Akintunde is an Associate Professor in the Department of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is well published in the areas of education, race, and diversity. He received the Bachelor of Science and Master of Music Education degrees from Alabama State University and the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and African American Studies from the University of Missouri. His other research interests include Hip-Hop culture, gender studies, and epistemology. In demand as a lecturer worldwide, his national television appearances include the "Crier Report" with Catherine Crier on the Fox News Network and the "Morning News" on MSNBC. His written publications include "Multiculturalism and the Teacher Education Experience: Essays on Race, Class, and Culture" and a children's book " The Adventures of Darrell the invincible Man."- Producer
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Deborah Kaye Allen was born in Houston, Texas, to African-American parents, Vivian Elizabeth (Ayers), a poet and art director, and Andrew Arthur Allen, an orthodontist. As a child, Debbie, her older brother, Andrew (called Tex), and her older sister, actress Phylicia Rashad, lived in Mexico to escape US racism. Their mother decided to live there to give the Allen children a brief experience of not having to endure the chronic racism and segregation that was typical of Texas during the 1950s. Debbie and Phylicia are fluent in Spanish.
Debbie graduated from Jack Yates Senior High School in Houston, TX in 1967. She graduated cum laude from Howard University in 1971 with a BFA in Classical Greek Literature, Speech, and Theater from Howard University. She used her experiences from attending Historically Black College Howard to inform her production and direction of the TV show A Different World (1987).
Although her parents divorced, Debbie remained extremely close to her father until his death. With Phylicia she has production company "D.A.D." which stood for "Doctor Allen's Daughters". Her Pulitzer-nominated poet mother Vivian is, the artistic and free spirit that has influenced and encouraged the remarkable creativity that so marks Allen as a performer.- Producer
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M.K. Asante is an American author, filmmaker, recording artist, professor. He is known for his memoir Buck.
Born in Harare, Zimbabwe, and raised in Philadelphia, he is the son of scholar Molefi Kete Asante and choreographer Kariamu Welsh. Growing up he struggled with the incarceration of his brother and the city's urban decay. After being expelled from multiple schools, he discovered his talent for writing at 16 and decided to pursue it as a career.
Asante is the author of four books, most notably Buck, a memoir about his troubled yet profound youth in Philadelphia. Buck was selected as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and made the Washington Post bestseller list in 2014 and 2015.
Asante is a Sundance Institute Feature Film Fellow for the movie adaptation of his memoir Buck. Asante wrote and produced the documentary 500 Years Later (2005), a documentary about slavery which received the Breaking the Chains Award from the United Nations' UNESCO. Asante directed and produced The Black Candle (2008), a documentary about Kwanzaa, co-written and narrated by Maya Angelou.
Asante has written essays on art, Hip Hop, technology, and culture for USA Today, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times.
Asante's debut music project, the Buck: Original Book Soundtrack, was released on May 14, 2015. The Soundtrack features hip-hop music by Asante and is inspired by his memoir Buck. Asante is featured on the song "Bangers", along with Haley Bennett, from the critically acclaimed album Indie 500. Pitchfork called "Bangers" a "can't miss moment" on the album and wrote, "MK Asante captures the vibe nicely." Asante is the founder of Wonderful Sound Studios.- Producer
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Wyatt Bardouille is an independent filmmaker and founder of Bardouille Productions. After a career in the high-tech industry, Bardouille launched the film production company in 2005. Bardouille has produced and directed numerous short films including The Dime and A Natural Life. She has also produced, directed and co-hosted the highly popular 40-episode web TV series on WhitneyandWyatt.com.
The award-winning "Dominica: Charting a Future for Paradise" is Wyatt's first major film. She has a great fascination with Dominica and has deep roots on the island. Wyatt's family is originally from the village of Pointe Michel, and she has numerous relatives that reside in Dominica.
Bardouille received a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and attended the Seattle Film Institute for post-baccalaureate studies in Filmmaking.- Director
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S. Torriano Berry was born on 3 January 1958 in Kansas City, Kansas, USA. He is a director and cinematographer, known for Rich (1983), The Embalmer (1996) and Game of Cards (2015).- Actress
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Dr. Troy is a mental health care expert and holds a doctorate in clinical psychology. She specializes in stress reduction, anger management and organic, emotion regulation. Dr. Troy is a best-selling published author and she is the founder of MindologyFitness an organization that offers fun, effective and affordable mind care to everyone, everywhere.
Dr. Troy's books "Ex-Free: 9 Keys To Happiness After Heartbreak" and "How To Be A Powerfully Responsible Bitch & Take Your Life To New Heights" topped Amazon's best-seller list several times. Dr. Troy's last book was inspired by the female domestic abuse perpetrators Dr. Troy has worked with over the years.
A show business veteran, Dr. Troy began her on-camera career at the age of four as one of the original cast members on the PBS hit show, Sesame Street. In addition to being a veteran actress, director and screenwriter,
On a personal note, Dr. Troy is the bi-racial daughter of a black mother and a white father. Troy has an inspirational story to tell about surviving and being the victor of child abuse, child abandonment, juvie hall and the foster care system. Troy is the proud mother of a 24 year-old son and a 21 year-old daughter. Troy currently resides in beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona.- Director
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Camille Billops started as a sculptor and painter, became a filmmaker, and amassed a treasure trove of books, documents, and photographs related to black culture.She was born in Los Angeles in 1933 and studied art at the University of Southern California there and later switched to childhood education, the field in which she got her degree in 1960, at California State University.Her putting up her daughter Christa for adoption two years later, because she did not want to be a mother, became a source of controversy, especially when Billops later made a documentary about their reunion.In this period and into the 197os, with a white scholar of black theater in New York City named James V. Hatch who would become her husband, she presided over a 4,000 square feet artistic loft in the Soho neighborhood of that city which served as a hub for collaborations, a salon for musicians and other performers.A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts allowed her and Hatch to record over 1,200 oral histories about black artists.These interviews and the other material she and her husband collected are now houses at Emory University.Billops died in Manhattan on June 1st of 2019.- Madeline Anderson was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. She is known for Simple Creature (2016), Koinonia (2014) and Survival Skills (2020).
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Amma Asante is a British BAFTA award winning screenwriter and director, known for Belle (2013), and A Way of Life (2004). She is a former child actress, who began her writing career at the age of 23 with a script deals from both Channel 4 in the UK and BBC. Her first movie, A Way of Life, which she wrote and directed won her numerous awards, both in the UK and internationally, including FIPRESCI prizes and the Carl Foreman BAFTA Film Award. In 2017 Amma was awarded an MBE on the Queen's New Year's Honours List, for her services to film as a writer and director.- Producer
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Anike Bay - 'also known as' Iris Montgomery-Ilori - is the author of "Little Iris' First Day of School," "Little Iris' First-Grade Field Trip to Jet Magazine," "Girls Like Us! Season 1, 2,3 and 4." In addition, She's also a film festival 54x's nominated and Invited award-winning director, writer, and producer of two hit movies and two music videos entitled "Girls Like Us" (2013);Girls Like Us 2.0! The Hustle! The Game!" (2014);Woman To Woman!" by Complete Love"(2013) and ,"All They Know Is Shoot," song by Tripp Sticc Featuring Ricky Moncler (2016). Any who,Anike grew up on the South Side of Chicago, in the Englewood community, which is better known as ,"Little Beirut,The Point Of No Return and as Spike Lee put it in his movie "Chirac!" As a young girl Anike attended Charles W. Earle School, from Head Start through eighth grade then she went on to attend Mather High School on the North Side for 1½ years before transferring to, and graduating from William Rainey Harper High School. She also attended Eastern Illinois University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and now she's currently pursuing her MPA of Independent Filming and Digital Imaging at Governors State University South of Chicago when time permits. Anike's a previous board member of the Illinois Safe School Alliance Board, and a prior Gospel Talk Show Host on WGBX AM1570,but, she's taken a leave of absent from both to work on completing two books, entitled "Girls Like Us! and Season 5 and She Had Me At Hello, Too!" Also Anike is working on two screenplays entitled, "Tell It To Jesus, and She Had Me At Hello." Now, although she has a strong desire to continue writing both children's books and other kinds of novellas and screenplays for people to read, she admits she's more interested in becoming the number-one filmmaker in the world as well as winning an Academy Award and NAACP Award for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Music Video and for Best Picture! Last but not least, Anike Bay's grandfather has Irish ancestry (Engram/Ingram) and Black Foot Indians ancestry and her grandma Suki, grandma Suki Johnson, and grandma Susie Engram all have Cherokee Indian ancestry.- Director
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Ayoka Chenzira is an award-winning filmmaker and a recognized pioneer in Black independent cinema. She is part of a generation of African American filmmakers who helped create a genre of filmmaking now identified as Black independent cinema. Her distinctive body of work spans fiction, documentary, animation, performance, experimental narratives, interactive cinema and television. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and is one of the first African American women to write, produce and direct a 35mm feature film, Alma's Rainbow (developed at Sundance Institute), and noted in Billboard Magazine's top forty home video sales list. She is considered the first African American woman animator with her animated satire, Hair Piece: a film for nappyheaded people and later Zajota and the Boogie Spirit. Hair Piece was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2018. There have been many international retrospectives of Ayoka's films and several of her them are in permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Ayoka's episode of Queen Sugar was nominated for a 2019 NAACP Image Award. She directed an episode of Greenleaf (407 - Reunited) that will air in the spring of 2019.- Director
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Zeinabu irene Davis was born on 13 April 1961 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She is a director and producer, known for Compensation (1999), Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLA (2016) and A Powerful Thang (1991). She has been married to Marc Arthur Chéry since 24 August 1996. They have two children.- Actress
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Lisa's mother, Tina, is a retired social worker. Her late father, Ira, worked as an engineer and then went into business as a general contractor. A sister, Heidi, is a lawyer. Lisa started acting as a child and played Flip Wilson in a 3rd grade performance. During junior high, she started traveling by train to Manhattan for private acting lessons and acted in summer drama camps. Her principal interest initially was to act in Shakepearean drama. She earned her degree from theatre from New York University and followed it up with a second BFA from Julliard. In 1993, she got her first break at the New York Shakespearean festival playing Isabella opposite Kevin Kline in "Measure for Measure". She was later turned down to play the role of Hester Prynne in a production of "The Scarlet Letter" because of race. Upset, she wrote a letter to 'The Village Voice' to protest legal racism. The play's playwright, Phyllis Nagy, responded with a criticism of her acting, which obviously made things worse. She went on to have a successful career in theater. In 1995-96, her portrayal of a South African singer in Athol Fugard's Valley Song garnered an Obie Award and the Clarence Derwent Award. More recently, Hamilton earned critical acclaim, her second Obie, and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her role as Suzanne Alexander in Adrienne Kennedy's, "The Ohio State Murders." Besides appearing in over two dozen films, Hamilton directed the documentary film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks in 2003. This film, about pioneering black actress Beah Richards, dealt with Hamilton seeking out Richards, an African-American actress who had broken ground making inroads for black actresses.- Actress
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Shola Lynch is known for Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2012), Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed (2004) and Untitled Yusuf D Jackson/Yucaipa Companies Project. She has been married to Vincent Morgan since 1 September 2006.- Visual Effects
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Barbara McCullough was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She is known for The Nutty Professor (1996), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) and Toys (1992).- Director
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Graduated as a director from the UK's National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield. Her first short film, `Coffee Coloured Children', achieved international film festival success and won first prize in the BBC Showreel competition. More success and awards followed with further dramas and documentaries for a number of UK and international broadcasters including `South Of The Border', a groundbreaking series for the BBC. She was awarded the prestigious honor of a special retrospective screenings at the New York Film Festival, including `The Body Beautiful', one of the UK's most commercially successful short films. Her first feature film, `Welcome II The Terrordome', won first prize at the Birmingham International Film Festival, the Cologne Film Festival and the audience prize at the Verona Film Festival. Ngozi has also directed an episode of `Heartbeat' for ITV, the top-rated UK drama series with an audience of over 18 million.- Director
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Jacqueline Shearer was born on 30 November 1946. She was a director and writer, known for Eyes on the Prize (1987), American Experience (1987) and A Minor Altercation (1977). She died on 26 November 1993.- Director
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Cauleen Smith was born in Riverside, California and grew up in the Sacramento area. She completed her B.A. at San Francisco State University in 1991 and her M.F.A. in Film at UCLA in 1998. Her feature length film Drylongso received a lot of attention after its showing at the Sundance Film Festival. It earned Smith the Movado Someone to Watch Award as well as Best Feature Film at the Urbanworld Film Festival and the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival in 2000. Since then she has been very busy, completing many films including The Fullness of Time which was filmed in New Orleans only two years after Hurricane Katrina hit. Her most recent project is an experimental documentary about the late Chicago-based jazz artist Sun-Ra, whose eclectic style changed the Chicago jazz scene forever. Smith teaches in the Visual Arts department at the University of California, San Diego and continues to write, direct, and produce.- A trailblazer in the film and television industry, Frances-Anne Solomon was born in England of Trinidadian parents. She was raised and educated in the Caribbean and Canada before moving to Great Britain where she built a successful career in the 1990's with the BBC as a TV Drama Producer and Executive Producer. Productions included Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998) by John Maybury and Speak Like a Child (1998) by John Akomfrah, both of which she executive produced for the BBC. She also produced and directed films and television programs through her production company Leda Serene Films. Solomon moved to Toronto in 2000 where she continued to create, write, direct and producer her own projects. Her film A Winter Tale (2007) received many prestigious international awards, including Best Diaspora Film in The Paul Robeson Category at FESPACO 2009. Other directing credits include the feature film Peggy Su! (1997), What My Mother Told Me (1995), Bideshi (1995); and documentaries Literature Alive (2005) and I Is a Long Memoried Woman (1990). She produced the multi-award winning feature Kingston Paradise (2013) and was the Co-creator, Producer and Director of Lord Have Mercy! (2003) - Canada's hit Caribbean sitcom that aired on Vision TV, Toronto1, Showcase and APTN and starred comedian/actor Russell Peters. The show received two Gemini nominations. Her latest feature film HERO Inspired by the Extraordinary Life & Times of Mr. Ulric Cross (2019) began its World Tour on February 28th, 2019 and has been receiving critical acclaim. HERO opened the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival, the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, New York African Film Festival's Opening Night of Film At Lincoln, DC Caribbean Film Festival and premiered at the Durban International Film Festival. It is currently on Showtime in the US. She is the founder and CEO of the CaribbeanTales Media Group, which produces, exhibits and distributes Caribbean-themed content, including the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival, CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution, and CaribbeanTales-TV, as well as CineFAM that promotes bold original filmstrips by women of colour creators, and now the Windrush Caribbean Film Festival based in the UK. Solomon is a a Director member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild of Canada.
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Sylvia Sweeney was born in Montréal, Québec, Canada. She is a producer and director, known for In the Key of Oscar (1992), The Last Round: Chuvalo vs Ali (2003) and InTollerance (2001).- Producer
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Yvonne Welbon (she/her) is an award-winning filmmaker and founder and CEO of the Chicago-based non-profit Sisters in Cinema, inspired by her documentary of the same name, about the history of Black women feature film directors. She has produced and distributed dozens of award-winning films broadcast on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, the Sundance Channel, BET, HBO, Netflix, and iTunes and screened in over one hundred film festivals around the world. Projects in development include "The Spies Who Loved Me," a thrilling expose on surveillance that focuses on the six years she lived in Taipei, Taiwan, and "American Pride," a Black lesbian coming-of-age series set on the south side of Chicago inspired by true events. She has taught at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. She was an Associate Professor and chaired the Journalism & Media Studies Department at Bennett College in Greensboro, NC. Raised in a Honduran household on the South Side of Chicago, Welbon holds a B.A. from Vassar College, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women. In 2020 she became a member of the Documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.- Director
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Kevin Bray is a director and producer known for his work on Succession, Insecure, Run, The Americans, Snowfall, and the pilot of Suits. Bray began his film career directing the classic urban action comedy, All About the Benjamins, as well as the 2004 remake of Walking Tall, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He has also directed over one hundred music videos and commercials, ranging from Whitney Houston to the Beastie Boys.- Actor
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Commanding actor Richard Brooks was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is an actor, director and singer. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Brooks studied acting, dance, and voice work at Interlochen Academy of Arts in Michigan. Later, he moved to New York City and was a student of the Circle in the Square Professional Theater School and performed in the Eugene O'Neill Theater Conference production of August Wilson's Fences.
He moved to Los Angeles, where he started his movie career. Some of his appearances were in _Teen Wolf_, Off Limits (1988), _Shakedown_, _Shocker_ and To Sleep with Anger (1990). He became noticed in The Substitute (1996) with Tom Berenger and as voodoo drug lord Judah Earl in The Crow: City of Angels (1996) with Vincent Perez, Thomas Jane, Mia Kirshner and Iggy Pop. While on TV, he is best known as Paul Robinette on Law & Order (1990) and Jubal Early on Firefly (2002). He portrayed Frederick Douglass in the PBS American Experience docudrama mini-series The Abolitionists (1988) and plays Gabrielle Union's big brother Patrick in the hit BET drama Being Mary Jane (2013).- Actor
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LeVar Burton was born on 16 February 1957 in Landstuhl, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Star Trek: Insurrection (1998). He has been married to Stephanie Cozart Burton since 3 October 1992. They have one child.- Director
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Jeffrey W. Byrd is known for Yellowjackets (2021), Malcolm X (1992) and Book of Love: The Definitive Reason Why Men Are Dogs (2002).- Producer
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After attending the Million Man March, Bythewood wrote the screenplay for Spike Lee's indie film, "Get On The Bus." Bythewood was also one of the film's investors. Bythewood did the rewrites for the Fox Searchlight film, "Notorious" and was awarded first-position written by credit along with the film's initial writer,
He made his feature film directorial debut on the acclaimed indie flick, "Dancing in September." It was acquired by HBO and became an HBO original movie. Bythewood has also written and directed "Biker Boyz," the Laila Ali documentary, "Daddy's Girl," the ESPN 30-for-30 documentary, "One Night In Vegas" and "Gun Hill," the two hour action pilot for BET which won the 2014 NAACP Image Award for Best Director.
In 2014, Bythewood produced, "Beyond The Lights" written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood.- Writer
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Bruce W. Smith is a feature film character animator, director and television producer. He is best known as the creator and executive producer of the Disney Channel hit show The Proud Family and for supervising the animation of the evil villain Dr. Facilier in the Walt Disney animated film The Princess and the Frog.
Smith studied animation in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. He joined the Walt Disney Studios an animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and various other Roger Rabbit shorts that the studio produced. Soon after, Smith was handpicked by producer/director Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang) to direct the Paramount Pictures animated film BeBe's Kids.
Smith also served as co-director on the Warner Bros. live action/animated film Space Jam before returning to Disney as supervising animator on such films as Tarzan (Kerchak and Baboons) and Emperors New Groove (Pacha).
While working animation on the feature film side, Smith started feeding into his love of television animation and created The Proud Family for the Disney Channel. He co-founded Jambalaya Studio for the production of the series and crafted 52 episodes of the hit series along with The Proud Family TV movie. Smith then rejoined the Walt Disney Studios to supervise animation on The Princess and the Frog (Dr. Facilier) and the Winnie the Pooh Movie (Piglet, Kanga and Roo) and as the lead animator on the short Tangled Ever After. Smith's knack for unique character design led him into the visual development of other projects at the studio such as Wreck-it-Ralph and Frozen.- Producer
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Rick Famuyiwa was born on 18 June 1973 in the USA. He is a producer and director, known for Dope (2015), The Mandalorian (2019) and The Chi (2018). He has been married to Gienita Mosley since 1999.