Quick Facts
Biography
Chinonye Chukwu (/ˈtʃiːnoʊjə ˈtʃuːkuː/; born 1985) is a Nigerian-American film director best known for the drama film Clemency. She is the first black woman to win the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Life and career
Chukwu was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and moved to Alaska with her family at age 1. She received her bachelor's degree in English from DePauw University. She later attended film school at Temple University.
Chukwu's first feature film, Alaska-Land, told the story of two estranged siblings who eventually reunite.
Clemency was written and directed by Chukwu, and stars Alfre Woodard as a prison warden who oversees the death row inmates. Her inspiration for the film came from the case of Troy Davis, a prisoner executed in 2011. She moved to Los Angeles in 2017 to shoot the film. She received the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2019, the first black woman to do so.
She is slated to direct A Taste Of Power, a film based on the memoir of Elaine Brown.