Age: 53
female
Ava Marie DuVernay (/ˌdjuːvərˈneɪ/; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. She is a recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, a BAFTA Film Award, and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. In 2011, she founded her independent distribution company ARRAY. After making her directorial debut with I Will Follow (2010), DuVernay won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film, Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first black woman to win the award. For her work on Selma (2014), a biopic about Martin Luther King Jr., DuVernay became the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the film went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Her other film credits include the Academy Award-nominated Netflix documentary 13th (2016) and the Disney fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time (2018), the latter making her the first African-American woman to direct a film with a $100 million budget. In 2023, she directed the biographical film Origin based on Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020). DuVernay's television credits include the OWN drama series Queen Sugar (2016) and two Netflix drama limited series: When They See Us (2019), based on the 1989 Central Park jogger case, and Colin in Black & White (2021), based on the teenage years of NFL player Colin Kaepernick. In 2017, DuVernay was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2020, she was elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board of governors as part of the directors branch. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ava DuVernay, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Ava DuVernay
Director
for Director in Harriet: The Underground Legend
Suggested by kamsismith
Harriet: The Underground Legend is a gripping and emotionally powerful TV series that chronicles the untold depth of Harriet Tubman’s life, transforming her from the iconic historical figure we know into a fully realized human being, whose bravery, struggles, and personal sacrifices redefined the very essence of freedom. From her harrowing escape from slavery to her courageous work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, the series paints a vivid portrait of a woman whose actions shaped the course of American history. Each season delves deeper into her incredible resilience and the inner turmoil of leading others to freedom, while also grappling with her own search for peace, purpose, and identity. While the primary focus is Tubman’s courageous work freeing enslaved people, Harriet also explores her role as a spy during the Civil War, her leadership in the fight for equality, and her untold contributions to both the abolitionist movement and women's rights. The series showcases the quiet yet fierce leadership she displayed, often risking her own life to save others, and provides an intimate look at the struggles she faced as a woman of color in a male-dominated world.
