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Donisha Prendergast

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Donisha Prendergast
Born
Donisha Prendergast

(1984-12-29) 29 December 1984 (age 39)
Kingston, Jamaica
Alma materHoward University (BA), Toronto Metropolitan University (BFA)
OccupationFilmmaker (Documentary)
Notable workBob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Sharon Marley, Peter Prendergast, Cedella Marley,Stephen Marley, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Lauryn Hill
Websitehovnow.com

Donisha Prendergast (born December, 29 1984) is a Jamaican filmmaker, activist and actress. Her on-screen acting work includes female lead in Canadian Screen Award-winning films Akilla’s Escape (2020) alongside co-star poet Saul Williams as well as Black Bodies (2020) alongside her husband, visual artist Komi Olafimihan.[1] Her documentary work includes The Story of God - Season 2, Ep2 (2018) with Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman, and Rasta, A Soul's Journey (2013).[2]

Career

Early life

Prendergast is the eldest granddaughter of reggae singers Bob Marley and Rita Marley and daughter Sharon Marley and Peter Prendergast.[3]. As a child, she toured with her mother Sharon Marley, a member of Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers.[4]

Prendergast began her career acting and the theatre, studying at Howard University where she majored in Theater Arts before continuing studies in Film & Digital Production, earning a BFA in Fine Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University).

In 2005, her grandmother Rita Marley introduced her to another kind of stage in Ethiopia as a youth ambassador for the Bob & Rita Marley Foundation's Mission: Bob Marley's 60th birthday celebrations and the Africa Unite Youth Symposiums.[5] She began a career as a speaker and cultural ambassador taking her much of the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and North America. With Free the Children, she built a school for girls in the Mara Masaai region in Kenya.[6] [7]

In 2010, Donisha became one of the founding directors of NGO Manifesto Jamaica,[8] an organization committed to global community work with special focus on healing works in Jamaica, especially with the youth of Faces of Tivoli Gardens Youth Organization, who mentored since the violent incursion of May 2010.[9] She later joined the I Am the Change World Tour with Ndaba Mandela, Nelson Mandela's grandson and Jasmine Rand to discuss the power of international collective action. [10]

In 2014, she formed a strategic alliance with civil rights attorneys Benjamin Crump and Jasmine Rand to forward social justice movements and causes including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Mario Deane.[11]

Film work

Her on screen acting credits includes Savannah, which she also wrote and executive produced TVJ, The Story of God with Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman[12],Disney Plus Rasta, A Soul's Journey[13] City TV, OMI Jury Prize SXSW, Canadian Screen Award-winning films Akilla's Escape Netflix and Black Bodies Bell Media which also won much acclaim at Sundance.[14][15]

Her screenwriter’s credits are also growing with projects like Jamaican TV movie Savannah (2017), Earthworm (2016), Awaking Sankofa (2018), shot Cape Coast dungeons, Ghana and was story co-creator and associate producer on When Morning Comes (2022). As a director, recent work includes directing the music video for her mother’s Sharon Marley single, “Steppah”.[16]

Philanthropy and activism

In 2014, she become involved in a campaign to protect the site of Jamaica's first Rastafarian community, a Rastafarian place of worship - near the village established by Leonard P Howell in the 1930s.[17]

In 2018, Prendergast became an advocate for police reform after she was reported to be breaking into a southern California AirBnb she had rented while on a work trip.[18] She was with two other Black colleagues and a white assistant when they were surrounded by seven police cars.[19][20][21]

In 2019 she made headlines, after she publicly commented that she was thinking of entering political office in Jamaica.[22]

In 2021, Prendergast created an organization [23] and campaign[24] to support finalist Syesha Mercado [25] in fighting the Manatee County Sheriff's department after they took away her newborn baby daughter.

Prendergast started non-profit organization the Humanity Ova Vanity,[26] an organization and studio supported by the Rita Marley foundation that seeks to deliver social interventions through educational, art, film and community development initiatives.

References

  1. ^ "'Black Bodies': Film starts conversations on racial profiling and anti-Blackness - National | Globalnews.ca". Global News.
  2. ^ "Donisha Prendergast Photos et images de collection - Getty Images". www.gettyimages.fr.
  3. ^ "Photos from Bob Marley's Family Tree".
  4. ^ {https://jamaicans.com/jamaican-donisha-prendergrast-listed-as-breakout-star-at-sundance-film-fest/
  5. ^ https://ritamarleyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Harambe-Newsletter-Jun-Aug2012.pdf
  6. ^ "About Us – Kenyan Boys Choir".
  7. ^ https://allafrica.com/stories/201208200418.html
  8. ^ "Home - MANIFESTO JAMAICA".
  9. ^ McCallum, Selina (April 10, 2020). "Donisha Prendergast — Using art and activism from Jamaica to the world".
  10. ^ "Nelson Mandela's grandson, Bob Marley's granddaughter speak at WVU". April 2024.
  11. ^ "Prendergast gears up for battle - Top civil rights attorneys to represent Bob Marley's granddaughter in case against US police". jamaica-gleaner.com. May 11, 2018.
  12. ^ "Donisha Prendergast, Morgan Freeman for National Geographic series". jamaica-gleaner.com. March 24, 2019.
  13. ^ "Bob Marley's activist granddaughter in MTL for world premiere of her new Rasta doc at FNC | Montreal Gazette".
  14. ^ "Bob Marley's Granddaughter Donisha Prendergast Stars in Sundance 2021 Film 'Black Bodies' About The Realities of Being Black in the 21st Century – Contrast Magazine".
  15. ^ Korney, Stephanie (February 19, 2021). "Jamaican Donisha Prendergrast Listed as Breakout Star at Sundance Film Fest".
  16. ^ "SHARON MARLEY's new single 'STEPPAH' with BIG YOUTH radiates heartfelt vibes - Out Now". February 9, 2024.
  17. ^ "Jamaica: Row over status of first Rasta village". BBC News. February 3, 2014.
  18. ^ Andone, Dakin (May 10, 2018). "Woman says she called police when black Airbnb guests didn't wave at her". CNN.
  19. ^ Meschino, Patricia (May 15, 2018). "Bob Marley's Granddaughter Donisha Prendergast Demands Police Protocol Changes After Airbnb Run-In". Billboard.
  20. ^ Wills, Cortney (May 10, 2018). "After police detainment over Airbnb checkout, Donisha Prendergast, speaks out "What happened to us is an indignity"". TheGrio.
  21. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/black-airbnb-guests-detained-california-1.4658941
  22. ^ https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/bob-marley-s-granddaughter-thinking-of-entering-political-office-in-jamaica-119012200335_1.html
  23. ^ Mendoza, Jay Handelman and Jesse. "Manatee County authorities take newborn of 'American Idol' finalist Syesha Mercado". Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
  24. ^ https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/RTBR.pdf
  25. ^ "Former 'Idol' Contestant Syesha Mercado Holds Emotional Press Conference After Her Children Were Removed By Authorities". BET.
  26. ^ "Humanity Ova Vanity - Exploring Creation in pursuit of a greater overstanding of Humanity and ourselves". www.humanityovavanity.org.
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