Ruth E. Carter (born April 10, 1960) is an American costume designer for film and television.[2] She is best known for her collaborations with Spike Lee, John Singleton, and Ryan Coogler. During her film career, Carter has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, for her work on Lee's biographical film Malcolm X (1992), Steven Spielberg's historical drama film Amistad (1997), and won twice for Coogler's Marvel superhero films Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022);[3] this made her the first African-American to win and be nominated for Best Costume Design.[4][5] She was nominated for a fifth time for her work in Coogler's Sinners (2025), breaking the record for most-nominated Black woman in Oscar history.[6]
Carter was born on April 10, 1960, in Springfield, Massachusetts, in a single-parent household. Her mother is Mabel Carter,[7] and she was the youngest of eight children. At nine years old, she began attending the Boys & Girls Club. Using her mother's sewing machine, Carter learned from the organization how to read and design Simplicity patterns.[8] She graduated in 1978 from Technical High School, Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1982, Carter graduated from Hampton Institute, later renamed Hampton University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts.[1]
Career
Carter in 2018
After graduating, Carter returned to her hometown, working as an intern for City Stage's costume department and then the Santa Fe Opera. In 1986, she moved to Los Angeles to work at the city's Theater Center.[9] While working there, Carter met director Spike Lee, who hired her for his second film, School Daze (1988). She continued working on his subsequent films, including Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), and Malcolm X (1992).[10][11]
Carter worked on the superhero film Black Panther (2018), directed by Ryan Coogler. Deriving from Afrofuturism, her costumes were inspired by many traditional African garments, including those of the Maasai and Ndebele people.[13] She traveled to southern Africa to draw aesthetic inspirations and received permission to incorporate traditional Lesotho designs into the film's costumes.[14] At the 91st Academy Awards, she won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, making her the first Black woman to win the Academy Award in the category.[15]
Carter won 2 Oscars for Costume Design for Black Panther and Wakanda Forever, making history as the first African-American in that category. She also made history being the first African-American woman to win multiple Oscars in any category. A 4-time Academy Award nominee also for Malcolm X and Amistad, she has 50 feature film credits including Do the Right Thing, The Butler, Selma, and Marshall and received the 2019 Costume Designers Guild Career Achievement Award.[16]
In 2023, Carter won her second Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).[5] During her acceptance speech, Carter dedicated her win to her mother, who had died during the prior week at the age of 101.[7] Also in 2023, the North Carolina Museum of Art hosted an exhibit displaying more than sixty of Carter's original garments.[18]
On January 22, 2026, Carter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Sinners; this was her fifth Academy Award nomination, making her the most nominated Black woman in the history of the Academy Awards.[19]
Kirkham, Pat; Stallworth, Shauna (2000). "Chapter 4: "Three Strikes Against Me": African American Women Designers". Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference. New York: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts. pp.141–143, 258. ISBN978-0-300-09331-5. OCLC48628173.
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