Media & Entertainment

Ava DuVernay

Born August 24, 1972 · Long Beach, California

The first Black woman nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Director and the first to direct a $100 million film — Ava DuVernay has used her camera to tell stories of Black life, justice, and liberation that Hollywood refused to tell.

Known For

Selma, 13th, When They See Us

First

First Black woman to direct a $100M film

Founded

ARRAY distribution collective

Ava Marie DuVernay grew up in Compton and Lynwood, California. She worked as a publicist in the film industry for over a decade before picking up a camera at age 32 and teaching herself to direct. Her first feature film was made for $50,000.

In 2014, her film Selma — about Martin Luther King Jr. and the voting rights marches — earned a Best Picture nomination and established her as a major filmmaker. Her documentary 13th, exploring the intersection of race and mass incarceration, was nominated for an Academy Award. Her Netflix miniseries When They See Us, about the Central Park Five, was watched by 23 million accounts and won multiple Emmy Awards.

DuVernay became the first Black woman to direct a film with a budget over $100 million (A Wrinkle in Time) and founded ARRAY, a distribution collective dedicated to amplifying films by people of color and women. She has fundamentally changed who gets to tell stories in Hollywood and whose stories get told.