Ava DuVernay
| Ava DuVernay | |
|---|---|
DuVernay in 2010
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| Born |
Ava Marie DuVernay August 24, 1972 Long Beach, California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
UCLA St. Joseph High School |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Notable work |
Selma 13TH |
| Website | www |
Ava Marie DuVernay (born August 24, 1972) 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,becoming the first African-American woman to win the award. For her work in Selma, DuVernay was the first black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award. With Selma, she was also the first black female director to have her film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, though she was not nominated for Best Director.
DuVernay was born in Long Beach, California. She grew up in Lynwood, California (near Compton) and graduated in 1990 from Saint Joseph High School in Lakewood. At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), she was a double major in English and African-American studies.
During her summer vacations, she would travel to the childhood home of her father, Murray May (which was not far from Selma, Alabama). DuVernay said that these summers influenced the making of Selma, as her father saw the Selma to Montgomery marches as a small child.
Her first interest was in journalism, a choice influenced by an internship with CBS News, where she was assigned to help cover the O.J. Simpson murder trial. She became disillusioned with journalism however, and decided to move into public relations, eventually opening her own public relations firm, The DuVernay Agency.
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