Ava DuVernay
Director
Award-winning filmmaker who has won major critical acclaim as the director of such films as 2012's Middle of Nowhere and 2014's Selma. For her work on Selma, she became the first African-American female to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.
She grew up in Compton, California and double-majored in English and African American Studies at UCLA.
She founded the film distribution company The African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement to help with the distribution of independent African-American films.
She and her two sisters were raised by their mother and stepfather.
Her film Selma depicts the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights marches led by Martin Luther King Jr.