2022 Black History Month

Presenter George Clooney was only joking when he announced Leonardo DiCaprio as the winner for Best Supporting Actress in 2007. The award went to Hudson for her debut role in Dreamgirls.

He won Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy for his role in Atlanta in two consecutive years. This second win in 2017 made him emotional: he spoke about his newly found belief in all things magical.

In early 2020, Tye White was accompanying his wife, actress Rania Nasreen, while she was getting her nails done when the actor got a notification on his phone that one of the producers of American Auto, NBC’s newest workplace comedy, followed him on Twitter. At the time he had just completed auditions to play Jack, one of its series regulars.

Neil Phillips, the first Chief Diversity Officer for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is an unapologetic optimist. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Phillips was raised in the Washington DC area and went on to study English and American Literature at Harvard University.

Directed by Gerald Mayer (nephew of Louis Mayer, powerful head of MGM), Bright Road was a simple, modest, but winningly compelling tale of the impact that one dedicated Black teacher bore on her pupils. The film was adapted from the Christopher Award-winning short story, "See How They Run," by Mary Elizabeth Vroman, which was published in the June 1951 issue of the Ladies' Home Journal.

It was at the 1983 Golden Globe Awards that Debbie Allen was up against a most diverse group of actresses – 2 white, 1 Latina and 2 other Black women. She won the award for a category that was then still called Best Television Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series.

The historical thriller The Tragedy of Macbeth, written and directed by Golden Globe winner Joel Coen, is based on William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. For his first solo movie away from brother and partner Ethan, Joel Coen chose the story of a fictional medieval general in King Duncan's army who is spurred by prophecy and personal ambition to change the course of Scotland's succession.

In 2000, Halle Berry won her first major award - the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Made for Television - for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Berry built on her success and went on to have an amazing career as an actress across all genres.

All Anthony Bawn needs now is a shot. He already has the product.

Dorothy Dandridge was the first Black film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Carmen Jones (1954). Her mother created a song-and-dance act for Dorothy and her sister Vivian, “The Wonder Children,” which toured Baptist churches throughout the South, during which they rarely attended school.