Age: 46
male
Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American filmmaker. After making his filmmaking debut with the short film My Josephine (2003), he directed his first feature film, Medicine for Melancholy (2008), for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature. He is also a creative collaborator and a member of The Chopstars collective. Following an eight-year hiatus from feature filmmaking, Jenkins directed and co-wrote the LGBTQ-themed independent drama Moonlight (2016), which won numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. Jenkins received an Oscar nomination for Best Director and jointly won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay with Tarell Alvin McCraney. He became the fourth Black person nominated for Best Director and the second to direct a Best Picture winner. He released his third directorial feature If Beale Street Could Talk 2018, to critical praise and earned nominations for his screenplay at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. He is also known for his work in television. In 2017, Jenkins directed "Chapter V" of the Netflix series Dear White People. In 2021, he created and directed the Amazon Video limited series The Underground Railroad, based on the novel of the same name. The series received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series or Movie nomination and won a Peabody Award. In 2017, Jenkins was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. Description above from the Wikipedia article Barry Jenkins, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
In the late '70s and early '80s, Roger Troutman and his band Zapp changed the music landscape forever. Known for their innovative use of the talk box, they created a futuristic sound that bridged R&B, funk, and electronic music, laying the foundation for hip-hop and G-funk years before it even had a name. Zapp: Electric Dreams is a gritty, four-part biopic miniseries that captures the meteoric rise of a family band from Dayton, Ohio, their undeniable musical impact, and the personal battles that nearly tore them apart. The series opens with Roger, an ambitious and talented young musician, transforming his family’s modest garage into a music lab. He and his siblings, all skilled musicians in their own right, break into the industry with the infectious hit "More Bounce to the Ounce," challenging racial and industry norms with their audacious sound. Each episode unpacks the story of Zapp, from their tense partnership with George Clinton to their groundbreaking work with Dr. Dre and Tupac, whose collaborations made Zapp’s sound iconic to a new generation. But with fame comes struggle: Roger’s relationships with his brothers are strained by creative differences, financial pressures, and the conflicts of stardom.
