George Tillman Jr.

George Tillman Jr.
Tillman Jr. at the 2013 MontClair Film Festival.
Born	(1969-01-26) January 26, 1969 (age 48) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Alma mater	Columbia College Chicago
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, film producer

George Tillman Jr. (born January 26, 1969) is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director.

Tillman is most notable for directing the films Soul Food (1997) and Men of Honor (2000). He is also the producer of the Soul Food: The Series on television and the three films in the Barbershop series: Barbershop, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, and Beauty Shop. He also directed the 2009 biopic Notorious about the late Brooklyn-born rapper The Notorious B.I.G..

Tillman was nominated for the Black Film Award for Best Director for Soul Food (1997). Tillman was also nominated for the Black Reel Award for Best Director and Best Screenplay for Notorious (2009).

Tillman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father, George Tillman, worked at the American Motors plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and his mother worked as a secretary. Throughout his early childhood, Tillman would borrow his father's 8mm camera and would start to shoot things with Milwaukee's Public-access television cable TV channel. By age eight, Tillman got his hands on his very first television script, All My Children, and wrote his first soap opera as well as his first five-minute show. Tillman recalled, years later, to an interviewer in regard to receiving the All My Children's script," I told them about a certain plot change that I wanted and I thought I could help the characters out…That was the beginning for me, the writing."

In 1975, Tillman became inspired to create his own films after seeing the film, Cooley High. To Tillman, Cooley High spoke to the African American audience in both tears and laughter, and Tillman decided he wanted to contribute to that medium, but did not necessarily know if he wanted to become an actor, writer or director. In 1973, when Tillman watched Five on the Black Hand Side and Claudine in 1974, he felt empowered and knew he wanted to become a filmmaker. "Those were the films that made me realize that African American films- this is before they started calling some films of that era Black exploitation films-spoke for us, and I wanted to be involved with that."