Ava DuVernay

Before Ava DuVernay, no Black woman had ever been nominated for Best Director at the Golden Globes.

DuVernay started her career as a publicist.

She worked red carpets, ran campaigns, and eventually launched her own firm: the DuVernay Agency.

She helped market Shrek 2, Dreamgirls, Collateral, Spy Kids, and The Terminal.

Her job was basically to get audiences to care about other people’s stories.

But eventually, she realized she had stories of her own to tell.

So in 2010, with $50,000 of her own money, she decided to write, produce, and direct “I Will Follow.”

A drama about a woman spending a single day packing up her late aunt’s home; reflecting on grief, love, and letting go.

A year later, she launched AFFRM: the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement.

The goal? Get films by Black artists and women into theaters.

In 2015, she rebranded the company as ARRAY to produce, distribute, and amplify Black artists’ and filmmakers’ stories.

DuVernay then signed an exclusive deal with Netflix: every ARRAY film would stream globally and stay on the platform for three years.

But ARRAY is only one part of her impact…

In 2012, DuVernay became the first Black woman to win Best Director at Sundance.

She then directed “Selma” and became the first Black woman to direct a Best Picture nominee.

And in 2016, she released “13th” on Netflix.

It was nominated for an Academy Award in a feature directing category.

Another first for a Black woman.

Two years later, she directed “A Wrinkle in Time” for Disney.

With a $100M+ budget, it made her the highest-grossing Black woman director in U.S. history.

Oh, and she also released the Netflix series “When They See Us”

It was streamed over 23 million times in its first month.

It earned 16 Emmy nominations.

And it made DuVernay (alongside Beyoncé) one of the first Black women in Emmy history with multiple directing nominations.