Shaka King

{{Short description|American film director, screenwriter, and film producer}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Shaka King

| image = Shaka King at Sundance Festival.jpg

| caption = King at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1980|3|7}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| alma_mater = {{ubl|New York University|Vassar College}}

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Filmmaker
writer
director

}}

| years_active = 2009–present

| partner =

| children =

| awards =

}}

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.

Biography

An only child, King was born on March 7, 1980{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} in Crown Heights and grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, both in Brooklyn, New York.{{Cite news|last=Ugwu|first=Reggie|date=2021-02-12|title=Shaka King Goes to Hollywood|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/movies/shaka-king-judas-black-messiah.html|access-date=2021-02-14|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|last=Farley|first=Christopher John|date=2013-07-09|title=A Singular Effort On a Joint Project|language=en-US|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323368704578593980521315280.html|access-date=2021-02-14|issn=0099-9660}} His mother's family was from Barbados and Panama, while his father's family was from Panama.{{Cite web|author=|date=2013-01-22|title=Meet the 2013 Sundance Filmmakers #40: Shaka King Tells the Story of an Unusual Threesome in 'Newlyweeds'|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2013/01/meet-the-2013-sundance-filmmakers-40-shaka-king-tells-the-story-of-an-unusual-threesome-in-newlyweeds-241504/|access-date=2021-02-14|website=IndieWire|language=en}} Both parents worked as public school teachers and were "very Afrocentric." King's early education occurred in the neighborhoods of East Harlem and Fort Greene. He attended a predominantly white preparatory school in Bay Ridge during his middle and high school years.{{Cite web|last=Juzwiak|first=Rich|title="Is There Such a Thing as Black Pop Culture?": Director Shaka King|url=http://gawker.com/is-there-such-a-thing-as-black-pop-culture-director-1341626644|access-date=2021-02-14|website=Gawker|date=September 18, 2013 |language=en}} It was in high school that he discovered his passion for creative writing.

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. 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.{{cite web |last=Jackson |first=Angelique |title=How 'Judas and the Black Messiah,' 'Da 5 Bloods' and 'One Night in Miami' Capture the Radical Spirit of the 1960s and Beyond |website=Variety |date=2021-02-19 |url=https://variety.com/2021/film/features/black-messiah-da-5-bloods-one-night-in-miami-1960s-1234910719/ |access-date=2023-05-18}} King's thesis for his Masters of Fine Arts resulted in the feature film Newlyweeds.

King currently lives in Brooklyn.{{Cite web|title=Shaka King|url=https://www.filmindependent.org/talent/shaka-king/|access-date=2021-02-14|website=Film Independent|language=en-US}}

Career

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.{{Cite news|last=Holden|first=Stephen|date=2013-09-18|title=Love and Paranoia in Brooklyn: Yes, They Inhale. Repeatedly. (Published 2013)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/movies/newlyweeds-the-first-feature-directed-by-shaka-king.html|access-date=2021-02-14|issn=0362-4331}} 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.{{Cite web|last=Salovaara|first=Sarah|title=Shaka King on Releasing His Sundance Short Mulignans Online|url=https://filmmakermagazine.com/93238-shaka-king-on-releasing-his-sundance-short-mulignans-online/|access-date=2021-02-14|website=Filmmaker Magazine|date=February 25, 2015 |language=en-US}} His 2017 short film LaZercism, starring Lakeith Stanfield, tells of a world in which white people suffer from “racial glaucoma.” {{cite web |first=Scott |last=Macaulay |title=Watch: Shaka King Erases "Racial Glaucoma" in Short Film LaZercism |website=Filmmaker Magazine |date=2017-05-31 |url=https://filmmakermagazine.com/102547-watch-shaka-king-erases-racial-glaucoma-in-short-film-lazercism |access-date=2021-02-14}} Stanfield also appears in King's second feature film, Judas and the Black Messiah, in which Daniel Kaluuya plays the role of Fred Hampton. 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.{{Cite web|last=Petski|first=Denise|date=2021-10-01|title='Judas And The Black Messiah' Writer-Director Shaka King Inks First-Look Deal With FX Productions|url=https://deadline.com/2021/10/judas-and-the-black-messiah-shaka-king-first-look-deal-fx-productions-1234848120/|access-date=2021-10-02|website=Deadline|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Lindahl|first=Chris|date=2021-10-01|title=Shaka King Will Develop Series for FX After Signing First Look Deal|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2021/10/shaka-king-fx-first-look-deal-1234668744/|access-date=2021-10-05|website=IndieWire|language=en}}

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 ..."

Filmography

Short film

class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

! Year

! Title

! width=65 | Director

! width=65 | Writer

! width=65 | Producer

rowspan=2| 2009

| Mariachi

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

Cocoa Loco

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

2010

| Herkimer DuFrayne 7th Grade Guidance Counselor

| {{Yes}}

2015

| Mulignans

| {{Yes}}

2017

| LaZercism

| {{Yes}}

Feature film

class="wikitable"

! Year

! Title

!width=65| Director

!width=65| Writer

!width=65| Producer

2013

| Newlyweeds

| {{yes}}

2021

| Judas and the Black Messiah

|{{yes}}

Television

class="wikitable"

! Year

! Title

! width=65 | Director

! width=65 | Writer

! Notes

2016

|High Maintenance

| {{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

Awards and nominations

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Award

!Title

!Category

!Result

!Ref

2020

| NAACP Image Awards

| Shrill

| Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series

| {{Nom}}

| {{cite news |title=NAACP Image Awards: Lizzo Named Entertainer of the Year; 'Just Mercy,' 'Black-ish' Among Top Winners |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/2020-naacp-image-award-winners-complete-list-updating-1276771/outstanding-directing-in-a-drama-series-2/ |access-date=July 14, 2021 |publisher=The Hollywood Reporter}}

rowspan="2" |2021

| rowspan="2" |Academy Awards

| rowspan="4" |Judas and the Black Messiah

| Best Picture

| {{Nom}}

Best Original Screenplay

| {{Nom}}

2021

| Producers Guild of America Awards

| Best Theatrical Motion Picture

| {{nom}}

2021

| Writers Guild of America Awards

| Best Original Screenplay

| {{nom}}

References

External links

{{IMDb name|id=}}
{{Metacritic person|id=person/shaka-king}}
{{Rotten Tomatoes person|celebrity/shaka_king}}
{{YouTube|id=hXxyR6frYvs|title=Feature Filmmakers Making Short Films with Shaka King and Zach Heinzerling}}

{{Navboxes

|title = Awards for Shaka King

|list =

{{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture}}

{{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture}}

}}

Category:1980 births

Category:African-American film directors

Category:African-American film producers

Category:African-American screenwriters

Category:African-American television directors

Category:American male screenwriters