Dustin Lance Black
| Dustin Lance Black | |
|---|---|
Dustin Lance Black at the 81st Academy Awards
|
|
| Born |
Dustin Lance Garrison June 10, 1974 Sacramento, California, U.S. |
| Residence | London, England, UK |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television '96 |
| Occupation | Screenwriter, film director, film producer |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Notable work |
Big Love (2006–09) Milk (2008) 8 (2011) |
| Partner(s) | Tom Daley (2013–present; engaged) |
| Awards |
Academy Awards Best Original Screenplay 2008 Milk |
| Website | www |
Dustin Lance Black (born June 10, 1974) is an American screenwriter, director, film and television producer and LGBT rights activist. He has won a Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk.
Black is a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights and writer of 8, a staged reenactment of the federal trial that led to a federal court's overturn of California's Proposition 8.
He was born in Sacramento, California as Dustin Lance Garrison. His father walked out on his polio-stricken mother, Roseanna, and his two brothers, Marcus and Todd, when he was young. Following his mother's second marriage to Merrill Durant Black in 1981, he and his brothers were adopted by their stepfather and changed their surname to Black. They grew up in a Mormon household, at first in San Antonio, Texas, and later moved to Salinas, California.
Growing up surrounded by Mormon culture and military bases, Black worried about his sexuality. When he found himself attracted to a boy in his neighborhood at the age of six or seven, he told himself "I'm going to hell. And if I ever admit it, I'll be hurt, and I'll be brought down". He says that his "acute awareness" of his sexuality made him dark, shy and at times suicidal. He came out in his senior year of college.
While attending North Salinas High School, Black began to work in theater at The Western Stage in Salinas-Monterey, California, and later worked on productions including Bare at Hollywood's Hudson Main Stage Theater. Black attended the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film, and Television (UCLA) while apprenticing with stage directors, taking acting jobs and working on theater lighting crews. He graduated with honors from UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television in 1996.
...
Wikipedia