- Born
- Birth nameAva Marie DuVernay
- Height5′ 5¾″ (1.67 m)
- A director, producer, writer, marketer and film distributor, Ava DuVernay made her feature film debut with the documentary This is the Life (2008), a history on hip hop movement that flourished in Los Angeles in the 1990's. This was followed by series of television music documentaries which included My Mic Sounds Nice (2010) which aired on BET.
DuVernay's first narrative feature film, I Will Follow (2010), secured her the African-American Film Critics Association award for best screenplay. Her follow-up, Middle of Nowhere (2012) won the Best Director Prize at the 2012 Sundance film festival, making her the first African-American woman to receive the award.
- IMDb mini biography by: SaphMB
- ParentsJoseph DuVernay Jr.Darlene Maye
- She didn't start filmmaking or even use or pick up a film camera until she was 32.
- In June 2013, she was invited to join both the director's and writer's branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is only the second black woman, following Kasi Lemmons, to be invited to the director's branch.
- She never attended film school. DuVernay had went to UCLA as a double BA major in English literature and African-American studies, as her first career choice was journalism.
- In 2012, she became the first African American woman to win the Best Director Prize at Sundance Film Festival. She won the award for her second feature, Middle of Nowhere (2012).
- She is the first black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She received the nomination for her film Selma (2014).
- Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.
- Film school was a privilege I could not afford.
- When I'm marketing a film, whether its mine or someone else's, I work with a great deal of strategy and elbow grease until the job is done.
- I'm a prison abolitionist because the prison system as it is set up is just not working. It's horrible.
- If you're doing something outside of dominant culture, there's not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself.
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