Angelica Nwandu | |
---|---|
Born | |
Occupation | Online Black celebrity gossip |
Years active | 2014-present |
Known for | Founder, the Shade Room |
Angelica Nwandu (born May 10, 1990) [1] [2] is the founder of the Shade Room (TSR), an Instagram-based media company focused on celebrity gossip. The site has since branched out into covering politics and focusing on Black culture news. The Shade Room has over 20 million subscribers across all platforms. Nwandu was dubbed "The Oprah of our generation" by Refinery29 [3] and a "celebrity culture savant" by Complex. Time magazine named TSR in the 30 most influential on the internet in 2016. The New York Times called the Shade Room "Instagram's TMZ". [4]
Angelica Nwandu was born in 1989 in Los Angeles, California, to Nigerian parents.[ citation needed ] She graduated from Loyola Marymount University. [5]
In 2016, Forbes named Nwandu to its 30 Under 30 list, saying she "revolutionized celebrity gossip" with the founding of the Shade Room. [6] Cosmopolitan reports that the Shade Room's followers across platforms now total more than eight million people. [7] TechCrunch named her to its list of "18 Female Founders Who Killed It in 2015" [8] and BuzzFeed says Nwandu is "figuring things out faster than everyone else." [9]
Nwandu has also been a Sundance fellow and Time Warner HBO fellow 2014 [10] selected for the January 2014 Screenwriters Lab. [11] The project, developed with co-writer Jordana Spiro, is called Night Comes On . It premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival where it won the NEXT Innovator award. [12] Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired the film for distribution, with a simultaneous theatrical and VOD release set for August 3, 2018. [13]
Shannon Elizabeth Fadal is an American actress and poker player. A sex symbol and teen idol of the 1990s and 2000s, Elizabeth is best known for her roles in the films American Pie, American Pie 2, Tomcats, Scary Movie, and Love Actually. She also starred in the films Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Thirteen Ghosts, Cursed, and Night of the Demons, played a recurring role in the sitcom That '70s Show and was a series regular in Cuts.
Jordana Brewster is an American actress. She made her acting debut in an episode of All My Children in 1995 and next took on the recurring role as Nikki Munson in As the World Turns, garnering a nomination for Outstanding Teen Performer at the 1997 Soap Opera Digest Award. Her first role in a feature film was in Robert Rodriguez's horror science fiction The Faculty (1998).
TMZ is a tabloid news organization owned by Fox Corporation. It made its debut on November 8, 2005, as a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. On September 13, 2021, Fox Corporation acquired TMZ from WarnerMedia for $50 million.
Jordana Spiro is an American actress, director, and writer. As an actress, she has starred in numerous films and television series including Netflix's Ozark and TBS comedy television program My Boys.
Zachary Michael Gilford is an American actor, best known for his role as Matt Saracen on the NBC sports drama series Friday Night Lights. In 2021, he starred in the Netflix horror limited series Midnight Mass. In 2022, he appeared in the horror mystery-thriller series The Midnight Club, and in 2023, he had a main role in the horror drama miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher.
Xposé was an entertainment, fashion and beauty programme that aired on Irish television from 2007 to 2019.
Kylie Kristen Jenner is an American media personality, socialite, and businesswoman. She starred in the E! reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians from 2007 to 2021 and then the Hulu reality television series The Kardashians from 2022. She is the founder and owner of cosmetic company Kylie Cosmetics. She is the fifth-most-followed person on Instagram.
Andrew Form is an American film producer known for producing the films Friday the 13th, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Purge. He is the co-founder of company Platinum Dunes along with Michael Bay and Brad Fuller.
Share is a 2015 American short drama film written and directed by Pippa Bianco, and starring Taissa Farmiga, Keir Gilchrist, Madisen Beaty, and Andre Royo. It follows a teenage girl (Farmiga) as she returns to school after an explicit video of her goes viral online.
Justin Kelly is an American film director, screenwriter and film editor. He came to prominence as director and writer of Sundance Film Festival 2015 select I Am Michael, starring James Franco and Zachary Quinto. He then wrote and directed King Cobra, which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival starring Christian Slater and James Franco, followed by Sony Pictures 2018 release Welcome the Stranger starring Riley Keough and Caleb Landry Jones, and most recently JT LeRoy (2018) starring Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern.
Gigi Loren Lazzarato Getty, known professionally as Gigi Gorgeous Getty, is a Canadian YouTuber, socialite, actress, and model.
Oculus Story Studio was an original animated virtual reality film studio that was a division of Oculus VR. The studio was started by Oculus VR to pioneer animated virtual reality filmmaking and educate, inspire, and foster community for filmmakers interested in VR.
The Shade Room (TSR) is a media company, founded by Angelica Nwandu in March 2014. Instagram-based, The Shade Room offers celebrity and trending news on an hourly basis, predominantly within the African American community; The New York Times called it the "TMZ of Instagram". "Shade" in this case refers to a slang term for quips or wisecracks, especially those made with the intent of debasing their target(s).
Weiner is a 2016 American fly-on-the-wall political documentary film by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg about Anthony Weiner's campaign for Mayor of New York City during the 2013 mayoral election.
Ingrid Goes West is a 2017 American black comedy drama film directed by Matt Spicer and written by Spicer and David Branson Smith. The film stars Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, Billy Magnussen, Wyatt Russell, Pom Klementieff, and O'Shea Jackson Jr., and follows a young woman who moves to Los Angeles in an effort to befriend her Instagram idol.
The 32nd Film Independent Spirit Awards, honoring the best independent films of 2016, were presented by Film Independent on February 25, 2017. The nominations were announced on November 22, 2016. The ceremony was hosted by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, and broadcast live on IFC. Online streaming service Sundance Now live-streamed the ceremony concurrently with the telecast with an on-demand version available on Sundance Now.
The 2018 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 18 to January 28, 2018. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 29, 2017.
To the Stars is a 2019 American drama film directed by Martha Stephens from a screenplay by Shannon Bradley-Colleary. It stars Kara Hayward, Liana Liberato, Shea Whigham, Jordana Spiro, Lucas Jade Zumann, Adelaide Clemens, Malin Åkerman and Tony Hale.
Night Comes On is a 2018 American drama film directed by Jordana Spiro, who wrote the screenplay with Angelica Nwandu. The film was developed by Nwandu and Spiro at the Sundance Institute's Screenwriter Lab in 2014. It is inspired by Nwandu's experiences in foster care. The film premiered on January 19, 2018 at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was given a limited theatrical and VOD release by Samuel Goldwyn Films on August 3, 2018.
Angel Bismark Curiel is an American actor from Liberty City, Miami. He has appeared in America Adrift (2016), Louie's Brother Peter (2017), Night Comes On (2018), Monsters and Men (2018) and Ashes (2018). He came to national attention in 2018 for his portrayal as Lil Papi Evangelista on FX's popular television drama series Pose. In fall of 2019 his latest film, Critical Thinking, was released.
You might not have heard of Angie Nwandu yet, but you can bet investors are paying close attention to her nascent but fast-growing media company, The Shade Room. Started in March 2014 as a personal Instagram account of Nwandu, the 25-year-old has managed to become a hugely popular purveyor of black celebrity gossip, taking on older, more established competitors with a small staff and very flexible ideas about where she wants to take her business next.