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 Rising Star: The Dedrick D. Gobert Story
Suggested by kamsismith
Set against the backdrop of 1990s Los Angeles, the film follows Dedrick D. Gobert’s journey from a humble upbringing in Shreveport to a breakout star in Boyz n the Hood. Guided by legendary director John Singleton, Dedrick quickly became a recognizable face in a new wave of African-American cinema, with his role as Dooky leaving an indelible mark. The biopic delves into the challenges of navigating fame, the pressures of the film industry, and the allure of fast Hollywood life. As Dedrick works on Poetic Justice and Higher Learning, the film reveals the man behind the camera—charismatic, driven, and deeply connected to the stories he portrayed on screen. Yet, his success couldn’t shield him from the dangers of the environment he sought to escape. On the brink of a promising future, his life was tragically cut short by a senseless act of violence, just days before his 23rd birthday. Rising Star offers a poignant reflection on Gobert’s brief but impactful career, shedding light on the fragility of success and the enduring influence of his work on Black cinema and culture.
