book this speaker
JOHN SINGLETON
DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER, AND PRODUCER
As a producer, director, and screenwriter, Singleton recently produced a Latin flavored project entitled “Illegal Tender.” Filming took place in Puerto Rico and is slated for release in March 2007 with Universal Pictures. He also produced and funded the independent film, Hustle and Flow, staring Terrence Howard and Anthony Anderson a film that went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Song of 2005.
Singleton directed 2 Fast 2 Furious staring Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris in Miami and 4 Brothers staring Mark Walhberg and Tyrese, Andre 2000 in Canada. Both projects were summer hits. Baby Boy, a film he wrote, produced and directed staring Tyrese, Vin Rhames, Snoop Dogg and newcomer Taraji P. Henson received four NAACP nominations. John wrote, produced, and directed Shaft, starring Samuel Jackson for Paramount Pictures. Before that, he wrote, produced, and directed Higher Learning starring Omar Epps and Laurence Fishburne, and wrote produced directed Poetic Justice staring Janet Jackson.
While Singleton was attending the Filmic Writing Program at USC he won three writing awards from the university, which lead to a contract with Creative Artist Agency during his sophomore year. He was also a recipient of the Jack Nicholson Award in 1989 and 1990 and the Robert Riskin Award in 1989. USC School of Cinema-Television invited him to speak at the 2006 Commencement. He received the Mary Pickford Alumni Award in May 2006.
Singleton exploded onto the scene with his first film, Boys N the Hood (1991), a tough, intelligent, plan-speaking look at friends in gang-ridden South Central L.A. that earned him Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director, becoming the first African-American (and the youngest filmmaker ever to do so). Singleton has won numerous of awards such as the LAFCA New Generation Award in 1991, the MTV Movie Award for Best New Director (Boys N the Hood) 1991, and finally the ShoWest Award for Screenwriter of the Year, and the Special Ward for Directorial Debut of the Year, 1992. He also directed a few television commercials for Coca-Cola and AT&T with D.L. Hughley.
He is privately mentoring emerging filmmakers in areas such as story content (writing) and independent filmmaking.
