John Singleton | Co-Creator, Executive Producer | Snowfall | FX

Oscar^® and Emmy^® nominated director John Singleton exploded onto the scene with his first film, Boyz n the Hood (1991), a tough, intelligent, plain-speaking look at friends in gang-ridden South Central L.A. It earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director, becoming the first African-American (and the youngest filmmaker) ever to do so. 

Singleton directed 2 Fast 2 Furious starring Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris, and Four Brothers starring Mark Wahlberg, Gibson and Andre “3000” Benjamin. Baby Boy, a film he wrote, produced and directed starring Gibson, Ving Rhames, Snoop Dogg and newcomer Taraji P. Henson, received four NAACP Image Award nominations. Singleton also wrote, produced and directed the remake of the 70s classic Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson for Paramount Pictures. Before that, he wrote, produced and directed Higher Learning starring Omar Epps and Laurence Fishburne, and wrote, produced and directed Poetic Justice starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur. He also produced and funded the independent film Hustle and Flow starring Academy Award^® nominee Terrence Howard and Anthony Anderson. This film went on to receive an Academy Award for Best Song of 2005, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” 

Singleton made a successful transition into the television arena and was nominated for a 2016 Emmy Award for his directorial work on the mega hit event series for FX entitled The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Singleton directed the controversial fifth episode, “The Race Card,” and received a 2016 Emmy nomination for Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special.

He entered 2017 with two series greenlit to air including Rebel, a female cop drama that premiered on BET in March 2017, which had a successful first season. His second series Snowfall premiered in July 2019 on FX. Singleton received a 2017 Emmy nomination for his A&E directed documentary on the L.A. Riots entitled L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later. 

 In his spare time, Singleton privately mentored emerging filmmakers in areas such as story content (writing) and independent filmmaking. He was also on the board of the Western Directors Council, a member of University of Southern California SCA Alumni Development Council and the Academy Film Scholars – Institutional Grants Committee.