Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (; was an American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first movie company owned and controlled by black filmmakers, Micheaux is regarded as the first major African-American feature filmmaker, a prominent producer of race films, and has been described as "the most successful African-American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century". He produced both silent films and sound films.
Howard University is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C., located in the Shaw neighborhood. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Larenz Tate is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles as O-Dog in Menace II Society and as Councilman Rashad Tate in Power. Tate's other films and television series include the films Dead Presidents, Love Jones, A Man Apart, Crash, Waist Deep, Ray and the television series Rush and Game of Silence.
The Miss Black America beauty contest is a competition for young African-American women. The pageant has garnered the support of artists, activists and performers including Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and Oprah Winfrey. After 40 years, in 2009 the pageant had a "kick off" in Washington, D.C. to rebrand the competition. The first teen winner was Ashley Anglin. The first runner-up teen was Monet Jackson, a resident of Mitchellville, MD; and Destiny Welch, second runner-up and also an MD resident. The adult winner was DC native and MD resident, Miss Kamilla Collier-Mullin. The first runner-up Miss Cherie A. Bryant, a northern Virginia resident; and the second runner up was Miss Janesia Simmons in the adult pageant.
Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes, known together professionally as the Hughes brothers, are American film directors and producers. The pair, who are twins, are known for co-directing visceral, and often violent, movies, including 1993's Menace II Society, 1995's Dead Presidents, 2001's From Hell and 2010's The Book of Eli. The brothers did most of their collaboration between 1993 and 2001. Since 2004, when Albert moved to Prague, Czech Republic, he and Allen have only directed one film together, The Book of Eli in 2010. They have been involved in directing and producing film and television projects separately since 2005.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (ΑΚΑ) is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen students led by Ethel Hedgemon Lyle. Forming a sorority broke barriers for African American women in areas where they had little power or authority due to a lack of opportunities for minorities and women in the early 20th century. Alpha Kappa Alpha was incorporated on January 29, 1913.
Debra Martin Chase is an American motion picture and television producer. Her company, Martin Chase Productions, is affiliated with Universal Television, a division of NBCUniversal Television Group. It was affiliated with the Walt Disney Company from 2001 to 2016. She is the first African-American female producer to have a deal at a major studio.
Catherine Liggins Hughes is an American entrepreneur, radio and television personality and business executive. She has been listed as the second-richest Black woman in the United States, after Oprah Winfrey. She founded the media company Radio One, and when the company went public in 1999, she became the first African-American woman to head a publicly traded corporation. In the 1970s, Hughes created the urban radio format called "The Quiet Storm" on Howard University's radio station WHUR with disc jockey and fellow Howard student Melvin Lindsey.
Yvette Denise Lee Bowser is an American television writer and producer. She wrote and produced the TV shows Living Single and Half & Half, and early in her career, worked on The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World. With Living Single, she became the first African-American woman to develop her own primetime series.
Counterpart is an American science fiction thriller television series starring J. K. Simmons. It was created by Justin Marks and was first broadcast on the premium cable network Starz. The series ran for 20 episodes across two seasons. It premiered on December 10, 2017, and aired its final episode on February 17, 2019.
Amanda Ingrid Seales, formerly known by the stage name Amanda Diva, is an American comedian and actress. From 2017-2021, she starred in the HBO comedy series Insecure. In 2019, HBO released her first stand-up comedy special I Be Knowin. Then, in 2020, Seales launched Smart Funny & Black, a comedy gameshow that showcases Black culture, history, and experience. Seales was also one of the co-hosts of the syndicated daytime talk show, The Real
Andrew Fried is an American documentary filmmaker, producer and director, and the president of Boardwalk Pictures. Fried is known for producing documentary films and television series, such as Chef's Table, The Black Godfather, Last Chance U, 7 Days Out, My Love, Men in Kilts, Booktube, Street Food, Cheer, Val and The Goop Lab with Gwyneth Paltrow. He directed the 2020 documentary film We Are Freestyle Love Supreme.
Dyana Williams, a native New Yorker, is a radio and music industry professional, journalist, community activist, artist development and media coach, and documentarian, as well as the founder of Influence Entertainment and co-founder of the Pennsylvania-based non-profit advocacy organization, the International Association of African American Music Foundation.
Gerald Anderson Lawson was an American electronic engineer. He is known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console as well as leading the team that pioneered the commercial video game cartridge. He was thus dubbed the "father of the videogame cartridge" according to Black Enterprise magazine in 1982. He eventually left Fairchild and founded the game company Video-Soft.
Block Starz Music is an American independent record label owned and operated by Bayer Mack. Its catalog includes independent releases by Machine Gun Kelly, Lega-C, Wiz Khalifa, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Big Sean, Rhymefest, and Ceddy Bu Rap Sumo. The label also includes its subsidiaries such as the independent film and television production company Block Starz Music Television.
The Czar of Black Hollywood is a 2014 documentary film by Bayer Mack that chronicles the early life and career of African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951). Mack conceived of and produced the film about Micheaux using Library of Congress archived footage, photos, illustrations and vintage music. The documentary, which is the first devoted exclusively to Oscar Micheaux's life, is narrated by William Bell, features an original score by Nicholas Jones and art direction by Julie Anderson.
The Missing is a British anthology drama television series written by brothers Harry and Jack Williams. It was first broadcast in the UK on BBC One on 28 October 2014, and in the United States on Starz on 15 November 2014. The first eight-part series, about the search for a missing boy in France, was directed by Tom Shankland. It stars Tchéky Karyo as Julien Baptiste, the French detective who leads the case, with James Nesbitt and Frances O'Connor as the boy's parents.
Bayer Leevince Mack is an American record executive and filmmaker. He is the publisher of the late-1990s, early-2000s urban entertainment website HOT 104.com, the founder of Block Starz Music and the director of The Czar of Black Hollywood.
Fionnghuala "Fig" O'Reilly is an Irish-American model and beauty pageant titleholder. In 2019 she was crowned Miss Universe Ireland. She made history as the first woman of color and Black woman to represent Ireland at the international Miss Universe competition.
