Thérèse Sita-Bella, born Thérèse Bella Mbida in 1933, was a Cameroonian film director who is widely acknowledged as the first female filmmaker in Africa. Sita-Bella was born to the Beti tribe in southern Cameroon, then a French colony, and received her education from Catholic missionaries. … Read MoreThérèse Sita-Bella (1933-2006)
Sanaa McCoy Lathan is an actress best known for her early roles in 1990’s television shows such as In The House and the movie Blade. Lathan was born on September 19, 1971, in New York City, New York. Her father is television and film producer Stan Lathan, and … Read MoreSanaa Lathan (1971- )
Négritude cinema director, activist, feminist Sarah Maldoror was born Sarah Ducados on July 19, 1929, in Condom, France, of emigrant parents from the Francophone Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe. She later selected her name after the hero of the Comte de Lautréamont’s novel Les Chants de … Read MoreSarah Maldoror (1929-2020)
Musician, songwriter, disc jockey, music journalist, film director, and drummer Ahmir Thompson, known as “Questlove,” was born January 20, 1971, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With his friend Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, he co-founded the hip-hop group the Roots. Since 2014, the Roots have been the in-house … Read MoreAhmir “Questlove” Thompson (1971- )
Tyler Perry is a world-renowned actor, director, producer, writer, and philanthropist. Born Emmitt Perry, Jr. on September 13, 1969 to Willie Maxine Campbell Perry and Emmitt Perry, Sr. in New Orleans, Louisiana, Perry changed his name to Tyler to distance himself from his father. Perry’s … Read MoreTyler Perry (1969- )
Ernest Roscoe Dickerson is an American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter. Most notably, he directed Juice (1992), which he co-wrote along with Gerard Brown. He also directed TV episodes of Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knights (1995); Bones (2001); Never Die Alone (2004); and several episodes … Read MoreErnest Roscoe Dickerson (1951- )
Fred “The Hammer” Williamson is an African American actor-director-writer-producer who built and sustained a long career as a black action hero from the “blaxploitation” era of the 1970s to well into the twenty-first century. Born on March 5, 1938 in Gary, Indiana to parents Frank … Read MoreFred Williamson (1938- )
Film director and actor (William) Bill Duke was born on February 26, 1943 in Poughkeepsie, New York to Ethel Douglas Duke and William Duke Sr. After earning his A.A. degree from Dutchess Community College, Duke became interested in the performing arts while attending Boston University in Massachusetts, although he initially enrolled … Read MoreBill Duke (1943- )
Actor and director Melvin Van Peebles was born on August 21, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois to parents Edwin Griffin and Marion Peebles. He grew up in suburban Phoenix, Illinois, where his father worked as a tailor and graduated from Thornton Township High School in 1949. Van Peebles spent a … Read MoreMelvin Van Peebles (1932-2021)
Ava Marie DuVernay is an American director, screenwriter, film marketer, and film distributor. At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, DuVernay won the Best Director prize for her second feature film, Middle of Nowhere (2012), becoming the first African American woman to win that award. DuVernay … Read MoreAva Marie DuVernay (1972- )
