Amma AsanteMBE is a British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress, and, since 2019, chancellor at Norwich University of the Arts. She first appeared in the BBC children's television drama series Grange Hill, and later wrote and produced the 1998 BBC Two television series Brothers and Sisters, starring David Oyelowo. She is known for directing the feature films A Way of Life (2004); Belle (2013); and A United Kingdom (2016), also starring Oyelowo. On television, she directed two episodes of season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale in 2019, and is co-creator, writer, and director of the internationally co-produced TV crime drama series Smilla's Sense of Snow, premiering on Australian television on 30 July 2025.
Amma Asante was born in Lambeth, London,[1] to Ghanaian parents: her mother was an entrepreneur who owned her own African cosmetics and grocery shop,[2] and her accountant father received qualifications to work in the United Kingdom.[3] She was a childhood friend of model Naomi Campbell, whom she met when they were seven years old.[4]
Asante attended the Barbara Speake Stage School in Acton, where she trained in dance and drama.[5] The school gave her the opportunity of drafting her first sitcom script.[2]
Career
Acting
Asante became a child actress and made her first appearances on television in Grange Hill and Desmond's.[6][7]
Writing and directing
In her late teens, Asante left acting and worked in screenwriting with a development deal from Chrysalis. She founded a production company, Tantrum Films, where she wrote and produced two series of the BBC Two drama Brothers and Sisters (1998).[citation needed] Asante has since developed film projects in both the UK and US.
Asante used Tantrum Films to make her directorial debut with a feature film, A Way of Life (2004).[5] It was developed and financed through the UK Film Council and was produced by Peter Edwards, Patrick Cassavetti and Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award winner Charlie Hanson. A Way of Life focused on the life of a single mother, played by Stephanie James. It details the reality of a woman who recounts the suicidal death of her mother and the presence of foster care. It also introduces her brother Gavin, played by Nathan Jones, who was also taken into foster care.[6] As a young 17-year-old, Leigh Anne (Stephanie James) finds it difficult to get by, especially due to the medical expenses that her daughter Eli Williams incurred. The film also touches on the theme of cultural conflict, involving their neighbour Hassan Osman (played by Oliver Haden), who had been the victim of a beating, after being accused of reporting Leigh Anne to social services for child neglect.[6] The film has been described as "one of the most warmly received UK titles in the London Film Festival in the autumn and a harrowing drama in social realist mode".[6] On 17 January 2005, The Times said of Asante: "She is one of the most exciting prospects in British cinema to emerge in the past 12 months."[8]
Her second feature film, Belle (2013), is an historical romance.[9] The film is based on Dido Elizabeth Belle, and depicts an illegitimate mixed-race daughter of an enslaved African woman and a Royal Navy captain. He placed the girl into the care of his uncle (and Belle's great-uncle) Lord Mansfield and his wife in late 18th-century London.[10] In this film, Dido was being raised by a white aristocratic family and acquired many intellectual skills. She uses her personal experiences to debate the social and structural issues of her time, such as gender roles and abolitionism.[9] Dido's role in the film has been said to be "a way that is usually denied to historical black women".[9]
In January 2014, it was announced that Asante would direct a thriller, Unforgettable, for Warner Bros.[15] but she eventually left the project, announcing in March 2015 that she would instead be directing A United Kingdom, a period piece based on the interracial romance between the first president of Botswana, Seretse Khama, and his wife Ruth Williams.[16] The film A United Kingdom, which Asante directed in 2016, features David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike portraying the main protagonists of the real-life story,[17] who marry, and with the coming independence of Bechuanaland, decide to move back there, despite British opposition to their relationship.[18]A United Kingdom is based on the 2006 book by historian Susan Williams entitled Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation.[17]Brunson Green details the filming process by explaining that "you could tell there were about 250 movie moments in this biography of this amazing couple, and so we kind of culled through all those moments and tried to figure out a storyline".[17] During the IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards ceremony, Oyelowo mentions adding A United Kingdom to his list of movies because it was an African-based story directed by a female filmmaker.[17]A United Kingdom opened the British Film Institute's 60th London Film Festival in 2016.[19]
Since around 2020,[21] Asante has been involved in creating, writing, and directing the six-part internationally co-produced TV crime drama series Smilla's Sense of Snow, which has its world premiere on Australian TV network SBS Television on 30 July 2025 and is distributed by ITV Studios.[22] The series was made by German film production studio Constantin Film, in association with others.[23]
After the release of Belle, Asante was honoured by BAFTA in both Los Angeles and New York City as a "Brit to Watch", where special screenings of the film were held to celebrate her work.[35]
In 2018, Asante became the first woman to receive the British Urban Film Festival honorary award from actress Dona Croll for outstanding contribution to film and television.[39]
In the 2020 and 2021Powerlist, Asante was listed in the Top 100 of the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent.[40][41]
1 2 3 Taylor, Jessica (26 September 2018). "'How Can I be Too High in Rank to Dine with the Servants, but Too Low to Dine with My Family?': Intersectionality and Postfeminism in Amma Asante's Belle". Gender & History. 30 (3): 769–785. doi:10.1111/1468-0424.12403. ISSN0953-5233. S2CID150040286.
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