John Singleton

For other people named John Singleton, see John Singleton (disambiguation).

John Singleton
Singleton at the Canadian Film Centre event in 2013
Born	John Daniel Singleton (1968-01-06) January 6, 1968 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1991–present
Spouse	Akosua Busia ​ ​ (m. 1996; div. 1997)​
Children	7

John Daniel Singleton (born January 6, 1968) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for directing Boyz n the Hood (1991). For the film, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for the award. Singleton is a native of South Los Angeles and many of his early films, such as Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995), and Baby Boy (2001), consider the implications of inner-city violence. Some of his other films include dramas such as Rosewood (1997) in addition to action films such as Shaft (2000), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and Four Brothers (2005). He recently co-created the crime drama Snowfall.

Early life

Singleton was born in Los Angeles, the son of Sheila Ward-Johnson, a pharmaceutical company sales executive, and Danny Singleton, a real estate agent, mortgage broker, and financial planner. He attended Blair High School, Pasadena City College and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He graduated from USC in 1990, and is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

Singleton had 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. He has cited the original Star Wars film as one of his strongest influences, and the work of Steven Spielberg as a source of inspiration.

Career

Singleton's 1991 film debut Boyz n the Hood, an inner city drama starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Angela Bassett, Ice Cube, and Laurence Fishburne, was both a critical and commercial success. For his efforts, Singleton received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. At age 24 he was the youngest person ever nominated for Best Director, and the first African-American to be nominated for the award (Four others, Lee Daniels, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele and Spike Lee, have been nominated since). The film has since attained classic status and, in 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

His directing ability led to the VFX-driven "Remember the Time" music video for Michael Jackson, which featured Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson. His next films were Poetic Justice (1993) and Higher Learning (1995), which were similarly socially conscious and received mixed to positive reviews.

In 1997, his film Rosewood, a historical drama about racial violence, was entered into the 47th Berlin International Film Festival. Both this and his 2001 film Baby Boy received very positive reviews and helped establish Singleton's critical reputation. Additionally, his adaptation of Shaft (2000), starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role, was successful critically and commercially.

Singleton has since turned to directing action films, such as 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Four Brothers (2005), which have received mixed reviews. In 2005, Singleton teamed with Craig Brewer and financed the independent film Hustle and Flow, once it was clear that most other major backers would not clear it for release.

In 2013, it was announced that Singleton was attached as director of the Tupac Shakur biography film. On April 3, 2015, Singleton reported that production was put on hold. Four days later, it was announced that following creative differences with Morgan Creek Productions, Singleton had stepped down as director, and was replaced by Carl Franklin. Singleton also stated he was planning on making a competing film about Tupac.

After directing episodes of the critically acclaimed TV shows Empire and American Crime Story, he served as an executive producer of the crime drama series Rebel for BET and co-created Snowfall for FX.

Personal life

He has five children. John has a daughter named Justice Maya Singleton (born on October 17, 1992) with former wife Tosha Lewis, as well as a son, Maasai Mohandas Singleton (born April 3, 1994).

On October 12, 1996, John married Ghanaian actress Akosua Gyamama Busia, who is the daughter of Ghana's second Prime Minister Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia. They have a daughter named Hadar Singleton, born on April 3, 1997, who appeared in Tears of the Sun (2003) and other films. Singleton and Busia divorced in June 1997. Singleton also has a daughter, Cleopatra Singleton, who was born in 1998. Singleton also has a daughter, Isis (born in 2010) with Mitzi Andrews, an actress/model based in Toronto, Canada.

Accident

On August 23, 2007, Singleton was involved in an automobile accident in which he struck a jaywalking pedestrian, Constance Russell, 57, of Los Angeles. Staying on the scene until police arrived, Singleton was not under the influence of alcohol or other substances, and was released after being questioned. Russell died later in the hospital. The case was turned over to the District Attorney but no charges were filed.

Criticism of Hollywood

On March 19, 2014, Singleton criticized popular studios for "refusing to let African-Americans direct black-themed films". Singleton told an audience of students at Loyola Marymount University "They ain't letting the black people tell the stories." He also added, "They want black people [to be] what they want them to be. And nobody is man enough to go and say that. They want black people to be who they want them to be, as opposed to what they are. The black films now—so-called black films now—they're great. They're great films. But they're just product. They're not moving the bar forward creatively. ...When you try to make it homogenized, when you try to make it appeal to everybody, then you don't have anything that's special."

Stroke

On April 17, 2019, Singleton suffered a stroke and spent time in the ICU. He reportedly began to experience weakness in his legs prior to going to the hospital after recently returning to the US after a trip to Costa Rica.

Filmography

Director

• Boyz n the Hood (1991) (Nominated—Academy Award for Best Director)
• Poetic Justice (1993)
• Higher Learning (1995)
• Rosewood (1997)
• Shaft (2000)
• Baby Boy (2001)
• 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
• Four Brothers (2005)
• Abduction (2011)
• Empire (2015) (TV series; one episode)
• American Crime Story (2016) (TV series; one episode)
• Rebel (2016) (TV series; director and producer)
• Snowfall (2017) (TV series; creator and executive producer)

Producer

• Higher Learning (1995)
• Shaft (2000)
• Baby Boy (2001)
• Hustle & Flow (2005)
• Black Snake Moan (2006)
• Illegal Tender (2007)

Screenwriter

• Boyz n the Hood (1991) (Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay)
• Poetic Justice (1993)
• Higher Learning (1995)
• Shaft (2000)
• Baby Boy (2001)

Actor

• Baadasssss! (2003) ... Detroit J
• The Game (2013) (TV series) ... John Singleton

Collaborations

Singleton has cast certain actors in more than one of his films:

	Boyz n the Hood (1991)	Poetic Justice (1993)	Higher Learning (1995)	Rosewood (1997)	Shaft (2000)	Baby Boy (2001)	2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)	Four Brothers (2005)	Abduction (2011)
Lloyd Avery II	N	N
Mark Boone Junior				N			N
Morris Chestnut	N		N
John Cothran, Jr.	N	N
Ice Cube	N		N
Tyra Ferrell	N	N
Laurence Fishburne	N		N
Tyrese Gibson						N	N	N
Dedrick D. Gobert	N	N	N
Tim Griffin			N				N	N	N
Cole Hauser			N				N
Taraji P. Henson						N		N
Catherine Kellner				N	N
Regina King	N	N	N
Marc Macaulay				N			N
Michael Rapaport		N	N
Ving Rhames				N		N
Busta Rhymes			N		N
Roger Guenveur Smith		N							N

Further reading

• Barboza, Craigh (January 2009). John Singleton: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-116-3. Retrieved 24 April 2011.

External links

• The Films of John Singleton
• John Singleton at IMDb 
• John Singleton at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television