In April, Amanda posted 30 Female Screenwriters to inspire you, which included female feature screenplay writers. I wanted to do a similar post, this time focusing on minority screenwriters. This 2013 report from the Writers Guild of America shows that just in TV staffing, the percentages still aren't great for women or people of color. But there are some minority screenwriters who have made a name for themselves both in film and television. This list includes some juggernauts, some up-and-coming writers, and writers who have been in the business for a few decades.
I hope these names can inspire you. As you'll read in her article below, Issa Rae, the writer/star of the Awkward Black Girl webseries, sent a "letter to Love & Basketball director Gina Prince-Bythewood nearly a decade ago. "That movie just changed me," she said. "It was a simple love story. I hadn't seen that. And the fact that it was written, produced and directed by a black woman made me think that I could do it, too."" Gina Prince-Bythewood is on this list and many other lists featuring women and minority screenwriters, and now Issa Rae is making her way on to these lists. You and I can be similarly inspired and one day we'll make it to someone's "list of inspiring writers," not limited by color or gender.
Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal)
Tyler Perry (Tyler Perry's Madea Series)
Mindy Kaling (The Office, The Mindy Project)
Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing)
M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense)
Issa Rae (Awkward Black Girl webseries)
Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station)
Yvette Lee Bowser (A Different World, Living Single)
Shalisha Francis (Castle, S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Aisha Muharrar (Parks and Recreation)
Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou, Black Nativity [upcoming])
Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees)
Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious)
Mara Brock Akil (Girlfriends, The Game, Being Mary Jane)
Saladin Patterson (Psych)
Felicia D. Henderson (Moesha, Sister, Sister, Soul Food, Gossip Girl, Fringe)
Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy)
Kriss Turner (Something New)
Dee Rees (Pariah)
Gregory Allen Howard (Remember the Titans)
Rob Edwards (Treasure Planet, Princess and the Frog)
Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S., Herbie Fully Loaded)
Sunil Nayar (Oz, CSI Miami, Revenge)
Sherman Alexie (Smoke Signals)
Who are your favorite minority screenwriters?
