Cord Jefferson
{{Short description|American filmmaker}}
{{use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Cord Jefferson
| image = Cord Jefferson at TIFF.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Jefferson at TIFF 2023
| birth_date =
| birth_place = Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Screenwriter, director, journalist
| education = College of William and Mary (BA)
| notable_works = American Fiction (2023)
| awards = Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series or Movie
Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
}}
Cord Jefferson is an American writer and director. After studying at the College of William & Mary, he started a career in journalism and wrote for numerous publications before becoming an editor at Gawker until 2014.
Jefferson transitioned to working as a writer for television. He wrote for the Comedy Central late-night series The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (2015–2016), the Netflix comedy series Master of None (2017), and the NBC sitcom The Good Place (2017–2019).{{cite web |title=Cord Jefferson |date=28 February 2020 |url=https://www.arts.gov/audio/cord-jefferson |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=September 4, 2020}} For his work on the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series or Movie. Jefferson made his feature directorial debut with the satire American Fiction (2023), for which he received a nomination for Best Picture and won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 96th Academy Awards.
Early life and education
Cord Jefferson was born in Tucson, Arizona, to a white mother and black father. After living outside the United States for several years until Jefferson was about five years old, the family returned to Tucson. His maternal grandfather was shocked by his daughter's choice to marry a black man, and he shut her and his grandson out of his life.{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/08/13/902161933/watchmen-writer-cord-jefferson |title='Watchmen' Writer Cord Jefferson |work=Fresh Air |date=August 13, 2020 |access-date=January 2, 2021 }} Jefferson's parents divorced when he was 14 years old, after his first year of high school. Jefferson graduated from Canyon del Oro High School north of Tucson.
He attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where his father had attended law school. After college, Jefferson lived in Los Angeles and in Brooklyn, New York. He also went to NYU for business school.{{cite web |url=https://www.thewrap.com/american-fiction-director-cord-jefferson-interview/ |title=How 'American Fiction' Grew Out of Cord Jefferson's Own Experiences of Being Piegonholed as a Black Writer |last=Pond |first=Steve |work=The Wrap |date=November 28, 2023 |access-date=April 5, 2024}}
Jefferson's mother died in 2016 of cancer.{{cite web |url=https://medium.com/matter/on-kindness-819ce388f976 |title=On Kindness: My mother is sick |last=Jefferson |first=Cord |work=Matter: Medium |date=November 2, 2014 |access-date=January 3, 2021}} When his father needed a kidney transplant in July 2008, Jefferson donated one of his, traveling to Saudi Arabia where his father lives.{{cite web |url=https://www.huffpost.com/author/cord-jefferson |title=Contributor Cord Jefferson |work=Huff Post |access-date=January 2, 2021 }} Jefferson wrote a personal essay on the experience, noting that he was treated for atrial fibrillation and that, after surgery, he quit smoking and began to take better care of his health.
Career
= 2009–2014: Journalism and ''Gawker'' =
As a writer, Jefferson got his start in journalism. Among his first jobs were writing for both Stereohyped and MollyGood.{{Cite web|date=2008-04-07|title=Cord Jefferson|url=https://ericpesola.com/william-mary/cord-jefferson-04-young-guarde-profile/|access-date=2021-07-10|website=Eric Pesola|language=en-US}} He spent two years as an editor at Gawker, from 2012 to 2014. He also wrote for publications including USA Today, Huffington Post, The Root, and The New York Times Magazine.{{cite news |last1=Phillips |first1=David |title='Watchmen' Screenwriter Cord Jefferson on the Origin of Hooded Justice |url=https://www.awardsdaily.com/2020/06/26/watchmen-screenwriter-cord-jefferson-on-the-origin-of-hooded-justice/ |access-date=September 4, 2020 |publisher=Awards Daily |date=July 28, 2020 }}
= 2014–present: Television work and film debut =
Jefferson started his television career in 2014 as a staff writer for the Starz comedy-drama series Survivor's Remorse before writing for the comedy Central late night series The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore from 2015 to 2016. Jefferson then became a story editor and consulting producer for Aziz Ansari's Netflix comedy series Master of None (2017) and the Mike Schur-created NBC sitcom The Good Place (2017–2019), for which he received Writers Guild of America Award nominations.{{cite news |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/40419576/from-gawker-to-master-how-one-writer-made-it-to-aziz-ansaris-show |title= From Gawker to "Master": How One Writer Made It to Aziz Ansari's Show |date=May 18, 2017 |first=Joe |last=Berkowitz |newspaper=Fast Company |access-date=January 2, 2020 }} For his work on the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series or Movie for the episode, "This Extraordinary Being". In the middle of 2020, Jefferson worked on a TV series about his time writing for Gawker. He is developing the show for Apple TV+.{{cite news |last1=Sepinwall |first1=Alan |title='Watchmen' Writer on Trump in Tulsa, Bad Cops, and America's White Supremacy Problem |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/watchmen-writer-interview-police-brutality-white-supremacy-1014494/ |access-date=September 4, 2020 |newspaper=Rolling Stone |date=June 17, 2020 }} Later in that year, he signed an overall deal with Warner Bros. TV.{{Cite magazine |last=Spivey|first=Kemberlie |title='Watchmen' Writer Cord Jefferson Inks Overall Deal With Warner Bros. Television |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kemberliespivey/2020/11/12/watchmen-writer-cord-jefferson-inks-overall-deal-with-warner-bros-television/|date=November 12, 2020|access-date=November 13, 2020 |magazine=Forbes |language=en}}
In 2021, Jefferson served as a writer and supervising producer for the HBO limited series Station Eleven. He made his feature directorial debut with the satirical film American Fiction (2023), which won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for five categories at the 96th Academy Awards and won Best Adapted Screenplay.{{cite web|url= https://deadline.com/2023/09/american-fiction-wins-toronto-film-festival-peoples-choice-award-oscar-harbinger-1235548676/|title= 'American Fiction' Wins Toronto Film Festival's People's Choice Award – Oscar Harbinger?|website=Deadline Hollywood|first=Pete |last=Hammond|date=September 17, 2023|access-date= December 4, 2023}}
Filmography
= Film =
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 2023
| Director, writer, producer | |
= Television =
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 2014
| Staff writer | 6 episodes |
| 2015–2016
| The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore | Writer | 196 episodes |
| 2017
| Story editor, consulting producer | 10 episodes |
| 2017–2019
| Writer, story editor, co-producer | 25 episodes |
| 2019
| Consultant | 10 episodes |
| 2019
| Watchmen | Writer, story editor | 9 episodes |
| 2021
| Writer, supervising producer | Episode: "The Severn City Airport" |
Awards and nominations
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Twitter | cordjefferson}}
- {{IMDb name | 6852255}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Cord Jefferson
|list =
{{Academy Award Best Adapted Screenplay}}
{{BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay}}
{{Black Reel Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Screenwriter}}
{{Black Reel Award for Outstanding Director}}
{{Black Reel Award for Outstanding Emerging Director}}
{{Black Reel Award for Outstanding Screenplay, Adapted or Original}}
{{Black Reel Award for Outstanding Screenplay, TV Movie or Limited Series}}
{{Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay}}
{{EmmyAward DramaMiniseriesWriting}}
{{Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Screenplay}}
{{Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay}}
{{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture}}
{{Paul Selvin Award}}
{{San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Award for Best Adapted Screenplay}}
{{Satellite Award Best Adapted Screenplay}}
{{USC Scripter Awards – Film}}
{{Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay}}
{{Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferson, Cord}}
Category:21st-century African-American writers
Category:21st-century American journalists
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:21st-century American screenwriters
Category:African-American film directors
Category:African-American journalists
Category:African-American screenwriters
Category:American male journalists
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award winners
Category:Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
Category:College of William & Mary alumni
Category:Film directors from Arizona
Category:Journalists from Arizona
Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners
Category:Screenwriters from Arizona
Category:Writers from Tucson, Arizona