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IMDbPro

Sheldon Epps

  • Director
  • Writer
  • Producer
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A look at the development of film making and its contribution to the social and political times form the perspective of Black film makers.Candied interviews with some of the top Black Directors in the business,  Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, Robert Townsend, Bill Duke, Fred Williamson, Melvin Van Peebles and other industry leaders. Seven Lights Productions and Actor and film maker Lord Jamel Wade team up to produce this documentary which examines the art of Directing, the Black pioneers of film making, the industry in Hollywood, the digital technology and President Barack Obama.
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Directors on Directing (2009)
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Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director of the renowned Pasadena Playhouse, conceived and directed the Duke Ellington musical, "Play On!", which received three Tony Award nominations and was produced at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where it received four Joseph Jefferson Awards, including Best Musical. The Pasadena Playhouse production was taped by PBS for broadcast as part of the "Great Performances" series.

He also conceived and directed the highly acclaimed musical revue, "Blues in the Night". The Broadway production was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Musical of the Year, and the London production, which he also directed, was nominated for two Laurence Olivier Awards, and ran for over a year on the West End, before being broadcast in Europe by Thames Television.

Epps was a co-founder of the off-Broadway theater, The Production Company, where he staged the world premiere of "Scenes and Revelations", which he also directed on Broadway at the Circle In The Square Theatre. Epps has directed plays and musicals for many of the country's major theaters including the Guthrie, the Old Globe Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Crossroads Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Arizona Theatre Company, and Coconut Grove Playhouse.

For television, he has directed episodes of Frasier (1993), Friends (1994), Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), Joey (2004), Out of Practice (2005), My Wife and Kids (2001), In-Laws (2002), Veronica's Closet (1997), What I Like About You (2002), Evening Shade (1990) and Sister, Sister (1994) and several pilots, among others. For five seasons, he was also producer/director for the hit series, Girlfriends (2000).

He is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Epps is a two-time recipient of the Theatre Communications Group/Pew Charitable Trust National Theatre Artists Residency Grant, which supported his four-year tenure at the Old Globe Theatre as Associate Artistic Director.

He was pleased to join the Pasadena Playhouse as Artistic Director in 1997. His directing credits at the Playhouse include "As Bees In Honey Drown", "Blue", "Play On!", "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", "The Importance of Being Earnest", "The Old Settler", "The Real Thing", "On Borrowed Time", "Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting", "Blues in the Night" and "Purlie", a co-production with the Goodman Theatre.

He directed the world premiere of "Blue" at Arena Stage Theatre, which was also produced off-Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre. Following its record- breaking production at the Pasadena Playhouse, "Blue" began a six-month long national tour.
BornNovember 15, 1952
BornNovember 15, 1952
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Known for

Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer in Friends (1994)
Friends
8.9
TV Series
  • Director
Golden Brooks, Jill Marie Jones, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Persia White in Girlfriends (2000)
Girlfriends
7.4
TV Series
  • Director
Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, and Ray Romano in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)
Everybody Loves Raymond
7.2
TV Series
  • Director
Great Performances (1971)
Great Performances
8.0
TV Series
  • Writer(creator)

Credits

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IMDbPro

Director

  • Christmas Party Crashers (2022)
    Christmas Party Crashers
  • The Upshaws (2021)
    The Upshaws
  • Loretta Devine, Tia Mowry-Hardrict, Richard Roundtree, Anthony Alabi, Talia Jackson, Jordyn Raya James, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, and Cameron J. Wright in Family Reunion (2019)
    Family Reunion
  • Raven-Symoné, Anneliese van der Pol, Issac Ryan Brown, Navia Ziraili Robinson, Jason Maybaum, and Sky Katz in Raven's Home (2017)
    Raven's Home
  • Instant Mom (2013)
    Instant Mom
  • Lulu Antariksa, Noah Crawford, Cymphonique Miller, Samantha Boscarino, Max Schneider, Halston Sage, and Chris O'Neal in How to Rock (2012)
    How to Rock
  • Tracee Ellis Ross and Malcolm-Jamal Warner in Reed Between the Lines (2011)
    Reed Between the Lines
  • True Jackson, VP (2008)
    True Jackson, VP
  • Sherri (2009)
    Sherri
  • Constance Marie, George Lopez, Belita Moreno, Valente Rodriguez, Masiela Lusha, and Luis Armand Garcia in George Lopez (2002)
    George Lopez
  • Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana (2006)
    Hannah Montana
  • Brandy Norwood, Coby Bell, Pooch Hall, Tia Mowry-Hardrict, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and Hosea Chanchez in The Game (2006)
    The Game
  • Pamela Anderson in Stacked (2005)
    Stacked
  • Love, Inc. (2005)
    Love, Inc.
  • Bow

Writer

  • Great Performances (1971)
    Great Performances
    • (creator)

Producer

  • Golden Brooks, Jill Marie Jones, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Persia White in Girlfriends (2000)
    Girlfriends

Videos1

Directors On Directing
Trailer 1:56
Directors On Directing

Personal details

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    • Pasadena Playhouse, CA (Artistic Director)
    • November 15, 1952
    • Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Other works
    Directed "Blue", a play by Charles Randolph-Wright and Nona Hendryx (Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena, California, USA).
  • Publicity listings
    • 2 Pictorials
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    He was awarded the 1998 Joseph Jefferson Award for Director of a Musical for "Play On!", at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
  • Quotes
    I believe in culture, education and the arts.

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