Biography

Dusan Brown is an award-winning actor, filmmaker, and multi-hyphenate creative from Chicago, Illinois. Raised between Chicago and Hollywood, Brown began his professional career as a child actor before expanding into writing, directing, editing, and music-driven storytelling.

As a filmmaker, Brown was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts for Film and a National YoungArts Foundation Gold Level winner. He later studied Film Production with an emphasis in Directing at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. His coming-of-age short film *Reece*, which he wrote, directed, and edited while still in high school, earned multiple festival awards and screened at national and international festivals, including Oscar-qualifying LA Shorts and The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes. His short film *All In* was named a semifinalist for the 50th Student Academy Awards.

Brown’s senior thesis film, executive produced by Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, won Best Student Film twice and screened at numerous festivals. Across his directing work, he has developed a grounded, emotionally charged visual style shaped by themes of identity, grief, masculinity, pressure, and resilience.

As an actor, Brown is an AFI and NAACP Image Award winner with more than 20 professional credits across film, television, animation, theatre, and commercials. His credits include Netflix’s Academy Award-winning feature *Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom*, the motion picture *42*, guest roles on network television, and series regular voice work on major animated shows. On stage, he played Young Simba in Disney’s *The Lion King* on Broadway and the North American Tour, earning a Young Artist Award nomination for his performance.

Brown continues to build a career at the intersection of writing, directing and acting, with a focus on bold, character-driven stories across film and television.
- IMDb mini biography by: Joyce Kelly-Brown

Afro

50th Annual Student Academy Award Semifinalist (2023), Top 3%. His student short, narrative film, All In, advanced to the next rounds along with a total of 63 other films (17 narrative) of a record 2,444 national and international submissions in four categories: Live Action Narrative, Animation, Documentary and Alternative/Experimental.