Shaka King (born March 7, 1980) is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He is best known for directing and co-writing the 2021 biopic Judas and the Black Messiah.
Shaka King
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King at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival
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| Born | (1980-03-07) March 7, 1980 (age 44)
New York City, U.S.
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| Years active | 2009–present |
An only child, King was born on March 7, 1980[citation needed]inCrown Heights and grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, both in Brooklyn, New York.[1][2] His mother's family was from Barbados and Panama, while his father's family was from Panama.[3] Both parents worked as public school teachers[1] and were "very Afrocentric."[1] King's early education occurred in the neighborhoods of East Harlem and Fort Greene.[3] He attended a predominantly white preparatory school in Bay Ridge during his middle and high school years.[4] It was in high school that he discovered his passion for creative writing.[1]
King studied political science and took his first film production course at Vassar College. After graduating, he practiced screenwriting while working as a youth counselor and tutor.[1] In 2007, he entered a graduate film program at New York University Tisch School of the Arts where he was a student of Spike Lee.[5] King's thesis for his Masters of Fine Arts resulted in the feature film Newlyweeds.[2]
King currently lives in the borough of Brooklyn.[6]
King's debut feature film Newlyweeds is about a free-spirited young couple who live in Bedford-Stuyvesant and who prefer to indulge in marijuana and hashish.[7] The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. He presented his next film, Mulignans, in the USA Narrative Short Films program at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.[8] His 2017 short film LaZercism, starring Lakeith Stanfield, tells of a world in which white people suffer from “racial glaucoma.” [9] Stanfield also appears in King's second feature film, Judas and the Black Messiah, in which Daniel Kaluuya plays the role of Fred Hampton.[1] The feature was nominated for six Academy Awards, including specific nods for King for Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture. More recently, he got a first-look deal with FX Productions to develop television.[10][11]
Angelique Jackson of Variety has noted that King is one of those "Black filmmakers [who] are offering an unvarnished look at the legacy of the 1960s civil rights era, examining America’s tortured history of racism ..."[5]
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Mariachi | No | No | Yes |
| Cocoa Loco | Yes | No | No | |
| 2010 | Herkimer DuFrayne 7th Grade Guidance Counselor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2015 | Mulignans | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2017 | LaZercism | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Feature film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Newlyweeds | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2021 | Judas and the Black Messiah | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Television
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | High Maintenance | Yes | Yes | 2 episodes |
| 2016-17 | People of Earth | Yes | No | 5 episodes |
| 2018 | Random Acts of Flyness | Yes | Yes | Directed 1 episode, wrote 2 episodes |
| 2019-20 | Shrill | Yes | No | 4 episodes |
| Year | Award | Title | Category | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | NAACP Image Awards | Shrill | Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series | Nominated | [12] |
| 2021 | Academy Awards | Judas and the Black Messiah | Best Picture | Nominated | |
| Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
| 2021 | Producers Guild of America Awards | Best Theatrical Motion Picture | Nominated | ||
| 2021 | Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Nominated |
