Black History Month is a time every year we look back at the countless contributions of African American men and women to our history. It is a chance for black voices to be heard, and the arts are where those voices tell their stories, artistically portraying the challenges of Black Americans and their love for their underrepresented communities. In the entertainment industry, hundreds of black filmmakers are working to elevate voices within their communities. Here are just a few of many black filmmakers who have opened their film studios to take back creative control of their art in no particular order. Some of these artists you may recognize, and others may be new ones to you that you should check out some of their work. All are brilliant creatives who deserve recognition for their work.
40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks
Spike Lee and Monty Ross
Film legend Spike Lee has had a hand in every aspect of filmmaking there is, since his journey began in 1977. He’s worked as a director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author over his forty-year career, exploring issues of race relations in contemporary media. In 1979, he partnered up with director and producer Monty Ross to create their production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. It has been the company behind all of Lee’s films from then onward. You’ll recognize films like BlacKkKlansman, Malcolm X, Love and Basketball, and Tales from the Hood. In 2010, Lee and 40 Acres won a Peabody Award for his documentary If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise, revisiting New Orleans five years after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, seeing how the city has recovered and is still struggling.
Shondaland
Shonda Rhimes
Shonda Rhimes is a producer and screenwriter synonymous with network television. Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, and Scandal, not to mention she has dominated the Netflix scene as well with the oh-so Bridgerton series on Netflix, based on the bestselling novels by Julia Quinn. Her company is the adequately named ShondaLand, founded in 2005. If you spot a television series with this company attached, you know you’re in for the most excitedly dramaturgical (albeit technically inaccurate) procedural drama you’ve gotten to see.
Rhymes company values visibility and fearless authenticity to connect its audience through a shared experience. One such project is Black Barbie: A Documentary, taking audiences through the untold story of the first black Barbie from the perspective of three trailblazing women who made history happen at Mattel.
Monkeypaw Productions
Jordan Peele
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Academy Award winner Jordan Peele is synonymous with contemporary horror. Renowned for his films such as Get Out, Us, and Nope, filmmaker Joran Peele founded Monkeypaw Productions in 2012. Peele founded this company to cultivate stories across all visual mediums. Monkeypaw Productions works in genres from horror to sci-fi to satire, challenging the conventional archetypes of these genres to tell stories equally reflective of social issues and uniquely entertaining.
Basset Vance Productions
Angela Basset and Courtney Vance
Renown television actress Angela Bassett and actor Courtney B. Vance met at the Yale School of Drama, married in 1997, and are among Hollywood’s most respected (and decorated) actors, with Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, Tony Awards, and countless wins and animations between them both. Although both have acted as executive producers on shows such as 61st Street and Basset’s own 9-1-1 and its spin-off 9-1-1 Lone Star, this company makes their first formal endeavor into producing together under an official title.
According to their website, Basset Vance Porductions’ goal would be to create “projects that are diverse, thought-provoking and told through a contemporary lens.” They continue to produce media that encourage dialogue amongst the communities reflected in their art. An exciting upcoming project of theirs is an adaption of a Pulitzer-winning novel, Monkey Boy, by Franciso Goldman. It centers around an investigative journalist who discovers a connection between a political association and an unsolved murder in his hometown.
Proxmity Media
Ryan Coogler
Most known for the Creed trilogy and Black Panther films, Ryan Coogler was included in the Times 100 list of the most influential people of the year in 2018. In 2021, Coogler, his wife Zinzi Evans, and Sev Ohanian founded Proximity Media with held from co-founder by Peter Nicks, Archie Davis, and Ludwig Göransson to create the multi-media company. They’ve worked on feature films, documentaries, television, music, podcasts, and more. Coogler and his team hope to bring attention to overlooked stories and to fill the space between stories on screen and the audience.
Their first feature film was none other than the exciting crime thriller Judas and the Black Messiah from director Shaka King in 2021. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won Daniel Kaluuya Best Supporting Actor and Best Orginal Song. Other features in their filmography include Creed III, and Space Jam: A New Legacy. Proximity Media and Coogler are also attached to produce the upcoming Marvel series Ironheart.
Outlier Society Productions
Michael B. Jordan
Speaking of Creed, the trilogies star Michael B. Jordan also launched his own production company, Outlier Society Productions, in 2016. Jordan and his team at Outlier Society are dedicated to elevating films made by and about diverse filmmakers. In 2021, Outlier Society partnered with Amazon Studios through a first-look film and television deal. Outlier Society announced it would partner with Amazon MGM Studios to develop The Empyrean book series for the screen.
The best-selling fantasy novels by Rebecca Yarros swept the book scene in 2023 and have continued to grow. A magical school about magic and dragon rising? It is most certainly an ambitious undertaking for Outlier Society Productions.
ARRAY
Ava DuVernay
Primetime Emmy and BAFTA award-winning screenwriter and director Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker who launched the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM) in 2011. The independent distribution company rebranded to ARRAY in 2015. The company divides itself into four different entities: Releasing, Filmworks, Creative Campus, and the nonprofit ARRAY Alliance. DuVernay was motivated to launch ARRAY after her debut feature, I Will Follow, had difficulties acquiring distribution. Since then, DuVernay and ARRAY have made it their mission to amplify the works of black artists in entertainment. One of their most productive pieces under the brand was the Netflix documentary 13th, analyzing the crimination of African Americans and the US prison system.
JuVee Productions
Viola Davis and Julius Tennon
“ Where stories meet innovation and change.” Those are the first words you’ll see on the JuVee Productions website. Founded in 2011 by none other than household name and EGOT-winning Viola Davis and her actor/husband Julius Tennon, JuVee Productions was one of the companies behind the 2022 film The Woman King about the Agojie. This all-female military regiment portrays the West African Kingdom of Dahomey. Viola Davis stars in this action-adventure alongside Lashana Lynch and John Boyega. JuVee is also one of the few production companies on this list participating in stage production, with two off-Broadway productions.
More recently, JuVee Productions has teamed up with Peter Ramsey, the director of Into the Spider-Verse, for two new anime projects: a noir thriller and a sci-fi adventure series.
CBA Studios
Chaz Bottoms
Now, alot of studios on this list focus on doing feature films. But we would be remiss if we didn’t give some love to the art of animation. Chaz Bottoms is a storyboard artist and animator who founded CBA Studios. This Black Owned Animation Studio has various partners: Disney, Adults Swim, TBS, Cartoon Network, and our childhood sweethearts Sesame Street. CBA also has a-list clients such as John Legend, Steve Harvey, Lebron James, and Lil NascX.
Bottoms and his company have been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Hollywood and Entertainment for their innovativeness and creativity. This year, CBA Studios will release its first original short film, Battu: An Animated Musical. This hip-hop musical, set in Chicago, pays homage to the windy city and its creative potential.
Will Packer Productions
Will Packer
Will Packer is an American Film Producer who’s had a hand in many comedy features since 2000, many of which feature all-black ensembles. These include Think Like a Man, Ride Along, Girls Trip, Night School, What Men Want, and Little. In all the films in his career, he aimed to make films for black audiences who didn't get to see themselves in genre films, for front and center. He launched Will Packer Productions in 2013 to continue this mission with his own team. In 2022, Packer made Hollywood history as the first black producer to preside over the 94th Annual Academy Awards, a feat for which he earned an Emmy nomination. Chances are, if you've seen a comedy with Kevin Hart, you've seen a Will Packer production.
Who Knows Best Productions
W. Kamau Bell and Melissa Hudson Bell
W. Kamu Bell is a stand-up comedian and television host for the five-time Emmy Award-winning docuseries United Shades of America. For seven seasons, Bell visited communities across the country to explore a variety of circumstances that affect them regarding race, class, and the challenges they face. But when CNN decided not to renew him in the fall of 2022, he took the news in stride and launched Who Knows Best Productions in the spring of 2023 with Melissa Hudson Bell, a professional dancer, scholar, and his wife. While the company is still in its youth, it’s off to a good start. Bell and his team at WKB won a 2023 Peabody for their Showtime docuseries We Need To Talk About Cosby. Bell is excited to spotlight rising talent from Oakland, California.
Hoorae Media
Issa Rae
Hooray Media is a broadcasting and media production company celebrating gifted women, talented men, diverse cultures, and beautiful families. Founded by Issa Rae, choosing the name from the literal play on the words “hooray” is a celebration of us. She wanted to champion other black artists who weren’t getting deserved recognition from mainstream media. Through Hoorae, Rae was able to turn her web series Awkward Black Girl and make the hit HBO series Insecure. Another HBO Original produced by Hoorae is A Black Lady Sketch Show, created by comedian Robin Thede. This hilarious sketch comedy show features an all-black female-led cast.
Story27
Mara Brock Akil
Mara Brock Akil created a variety of shows for both the CW and BET. She became the youngest African American female showrunner with her television sitcom Girlfriends, which ran for eight seasons in the 2000s. She also created BET’s first drama series, Being Mary Jane. In 2021, she founded Story27 in a deal with Netflix. The number 27 is a universal number and the highest arrangement of the universe’s cosmic soul (from Plato’s perspective); Akil relates it to the universal stories that could be told. Akil and Story27 are dedicated to telling stories of marginalized humanity.
Hillman Grad
Lena Waithe
Lena Waithe is one of the producers behind the 2017 dark comedy film Dear White People. That same year, she won a Prime Time Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series with an episode of Masters of None. Her media production company, Hillman Grad, is on a mission of empowerment. Films such as The Fourty-Year-Old Version and Sundance Winner A Thousand and One tell provocative tales that empower the underrepresented and amplify the voices of marginalized communities.
Beyond the screen, Hillman Grad joined the producing team of Ain't No Mo, the Tony-nominated Best Play. The premise is an alternate universe where the US government made a program to buy every black person in America one-way tickets back to Africa. Ain't No Mo's debut made its playwright Jordan E. Cooper, the youngest black American playwright, to be nominated for a Tony Award.
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