Ava DuVernay

BORN: AUGUST 24, 1972, LONG BEACH, CA

Figure out what you need to do to be the heroine of your own story.

A Wrinkle in Time, Selma, 13th, I Will Follow, Middle of Nowhere, This Is the Life: Ava directed all of them. As a child, she planned and directed her younger sisters and their Barbie dolls by scripting imaginary story lines and adventures for them. Today Ava is an award-winning director who has achieved a number of firsts in cinema for Black women. She won a best director prize at Sundance, her film was nominated for an Oscar, and she was the first to direct a $100 million film, A Wrinkle in Time.

“I didn’t start out thinking that I could ever make films,” Ava says. “I started out being a film lover, loving films, and wanting to have a job that put me close to them and close to the filmmakers and close to film sets.” After graduating from UCLA, Ava worked as a publicist before forming her own agency in 1999. The DuVernay Agency (later known as DVA Media + Marketing) provided award-winning PR services for over 100 high-profile film and television projects.

Ava’s first film, This Is the Life, documented the hip-hop scene at a café where she had performed. In Selma, Ava chronicled Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership and struggle for voting rights. The Oscar-nominated documentary 13th explores American race relations and the contemporary justice system. Her TV miniseries When They See Us, about five New York City teens falsely accused and wrongfully convicted of a brutal attack in Central Park, is a searing indictment of racism, media bias, and the failures of the legal system. Ava is committed to using the power of the screen to expose truth and to effect change.

While forging her own career path, Ava has been an activist and an advocate for diversity in the motion picture industry. As a writer and director for the popular television series Queen Sugar, Ava has employed female scriptwriters, production crews, and actors. Array, her film-distribution company, utilizes the skills and services of people of color. Ava recognizes that her influence is a privilege. She is not satisfied with being the “first” or the only Black woman in the room. She wants to create and extend creative opportunities for others.