John Singleton

John Daniel Singleton (January 6, 1968 – April 28, 2019) was an American director, screenwriter, and producer.

John Singleton was born on January 6, 1968, in Los Angeles, the son of Shelia Ward-Johnson (later Morgan), a pharmaceutical company sales executive, and Danny Singleton, a real estate agent, mortgage broker, and financial planner.

Singleton was a spring 1987 initiate into the Beta Omega Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and graduated from USC in 1990.

Singleton considered pursuing computer science, but enrolled in USC's Filmic Writing program under Margaret Mehring.

The program was designed to take students directly into the Hollywood system as proficient writer/directors.

Of his work with some of the 1990s' most visible rappers, Singleton states, "'I come from the same place as rappers. It's cool because it's just another form of communication. I have the same sensibilities as rappers. I'm not bourgeois and everything, thinking I'm better than folks. I see myself as the first filmmaker from the hip-hop generation. I've grown up with hip-hop music. The films I make have a hip-hop aesthetic. It may not have rap in it, but there's a whole culture and politics that go with the music. It's young, black culture-that's what I deal with in my films.'"

He made his feature film debut writing and directing Boyz n the Hood (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming, at age 24, the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for that award.

In 1991, Singleton made his film debut with Boyz n the Hood., a coming-of-age crime drama about three childhood friends growing up in the crime-ridden neighbourhood of South Central LA.

Starring Cuba Gooding Jr.., Ice Cube, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Angela Bassett, Regina King, and Laurence Fishburne, the film was both a critical and commercial success.

It debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.

For his efforts, Singleton received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director.

At age 24, he became the youngest person ever nominated for Best Director and the first African-American to be nominated for the award.

In 1992, following the success of Boyz n the Hood, Singleton went on to direct VFX-driven "Remember the Time" music video for Michael Jackson, which featured Eddie Murphy, Iman, and Magic Johnson.

The song and the music video were well-received and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles as well as the Mainstream Top 40 chart.

It is certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Internationally, the song was a Top 10 hit in nine countries, peaking at No.1 in New Zealand, at No.2 in Spain and No.3 in the United Kingdom.

Singleton went on to write and direct other films, such as the romantic drama Poetic Justice (1993), the socially conscious drama Higher Learning (1995), the historical drama Rosewood (1997), the crime film Shaft (2000), the coming-of-age drama Baby Boy (2001) and the action films 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and Four Brothers (2005).

In television, he co-created the television crime drama Snowfall and directed episodes of shows such as Empire, Rebel and the fifth episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special for the latter.

One of the most successful and groundbreaking directors in African-American cinema, Singleton and his films represented the African-American experience in urban populations, focusing on themes such as black masculinity, trauma, racism and identity.

Singleton frequently cast rappers and musicians, such as Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, Janet Jackson, Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes, Tyrese Gibson, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris and André 3000 in prominent roles.

In a 1993 DIRT magazine interview with Veronica Chambers, Singleton says of his childhood, "When I was growing up, comic books, video games and movies were my buffer against all the drugs, the partying and shit [...] I never grew up with a whole lot of white people. I grew up in a black neighborhood."

He attended Eisenhower High School, Blair High School, Pasadena City College and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

In 1993, Singleton wrote and directed his second film, Poetic Justice, a romantic drama about a young African-American woman named Justice (played by Janet Jackson, in her film debut) who writes poetry to deal with the loss of her boyfriend to gun violence but soon encounters a postal worker (played by Tupac Shakur), who helps her overcome depression.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, but earned Jackson Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song for "Again", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

The film has developed a cult following, especially for the chemistry between Jackson and Shakur and is now considered as one of Singleton's most enduring films.

In 1995, Singleton wrote and directed Higher Learning, a socially conscious drama about the intense racial and social tension in a university campus.

Like Poetic Justice, the film received mixed reviews.

In 1997, following the mixed reception of Poetic Justice and Higher Learning, Singleton's fourth film, Rosewood, a historical drama based on racial violence during the 1923 Rosewood massacre in Florida, received generally positive reviews and was entered into the 47th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Bear.

In 2000, Singelton co-wrote, co-produced and directed Shaft, a sequel-remake of the original 1971 film of the same name starring Richard Roundtree in the title role.

Starring Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft's relative, John Shaft Jr., the film received generally positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing over $107 million worldwide.

In 2001, ten years after the release of Boyz n the Hood, Singleton wrote, produced, and directed Baby Boy, a coming-of-age comedy-drama about Jody Summers (played by Tyrese Gibson), a 20-year-old man who fathers two children by two different women- Yvette (played by Taraji P. Henson) and Peanut (played by Tamara LaSeon Bass) but still lives with his own mother (played by Adrienne-Joi Johnson) while he lives and learns in his everyday life in the hood of Los Angeles.

The film received predominantly positive reviews, many of whom consider it to be a return to form for Singleton and one of his best films.

In 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Singleton's next film was 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), the sequel to The Fast and the Furious (2001) and the second installment in the Fast and Furious series.

The film was a box office success, grossing over $236 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film in the series at the time, as well as the highest-grossing film of Singleton's career.

In 2005, Singleton teamed with writer-director Craig Brewer to finance and produce the independent film Hustle and Flow, once it was clear that most other major backers would not clear it for release.

The film stars Terrence Howard as a Memphis hustler and pimp who faces his aspiration to become a rapper.

Also starring Anthony Anderson and Taraji P. Henson in supporting roles, the film received positive reviews and earned two Academy Awards nominations for Best Actor and Best Original Song, winning the latter.

That same year, Singleton directed Four Brothers, a blaxploitation-inspired action film starring Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund as four adopted brothers who return to their hometown of Detroit, Michigan to avenge the murder of their adoptive mother.