Re: Exclusive: Michael Jackson TV Movie Coming from Emmy Winning Motown Veteran
Well, I was thinking that the director and script (and of course, Navi's acting) could destroy this pretty quick-but the director has some great credits-she's a writer too-nominated for an Academy Award.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0396817/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
DIANNE HOUSTON IMDb
Mini Bio (1)
Dianne Houston is an Academy Award nominated writer and director. Her nomination in the Short Film category for ''Tuesday Morning Ride'' made Houston the first and only African American female director to be nominated for an Oscar for directing work. In addition to her nomination, Houston is best known for writing the feature film "Take The Lead" and Lifetime's record breaking "Surviving Compton: Dr. Dre, Suge, & Michel'le." She was nominated for a 2017 WGA award for her work on "Surviving Compton."
Early Life Houston attended the Workshop for Careers in the Arts (forerunner of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts). She left home at age 16 to study and pursue a theatre career in New York, touring nationally with the New York City Street Ensemble under Marketa Kimbrell. Houston earned a Fine Arts degree from Howard University in directing, and by the time she graduated from Howard in 1976, Houston had already become a published playwright. She directed her first professional production at the New Back Alley Theatre in 1978. Her play, ''The Fishermen,'' has been performed on college campuses every year since its debut.
Houston eventually returned to New York, where she worked and/or studied with notable theatre artists such as Laurie Carlos, Harry Poe, Joe Chaiken, Liz Swados, Joseph Papp, Ntozake Shange, Peter Brook, and Ellen Stewart. She was the founding director of both City Kids Rep and Alchemy: Theatre of Change.
Career Houston's writing credits include ''Take the Lead,'' ''Knights of the South Bronx'' (A&E), as well as writing/producing on various prime time series. These include ''Brewster Place,'' ''City of Angels,'' and ''The Education of Max Brewster.'' Houston has also signed on to adapt Rebecca Walker's popular novel Ade' into a feature film with Madonna in her directorial debut. Houston has also directed several episodes on popular shows such as "Single Ladies," ''Crossing Jordan,'' ''Presidio Med,'' ''Soul Food,'' ''City of Angels,'' ''Strong Medicine,'' and ''NYPD Blue.'' She has developed projects for Lifetime, Showtime, NBC, HBO, Sony, Paramount, and Harpo Productions, just to name a few. She is also directing "Hair Tales," written and created by noted pundit, commentator and style activist Michaela angela Davis.
Houston wrote on the ABC upcoming mini-series ''When We Rise,'' and recently signed on to write VH1's movie ''From Boys II Men.''
In 2017, Houston directed ''Searching for Neverland,'' a Lifetime tv event revealing the untold story of the last years of Michael Jackson's life, and began pre-production for her feature film "Harriet," an unconventional look at the life of Harriet Tubman.
Some of her future projects include development and publishing of two children's books, a young adult novel, a science fiction series, and a thriller. She is in partnership with Deni Henson on "The Dark Lady", a limited series based on the life of William Shakespeare's Black muse.
Awards/Nominations Houston was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996 for ''Tuesday Morning Ride,'' an NAACP Image award for Outstanding Writing in a Feature Film/ Television Movie for ''Take the Lead,'' and the 2017 Writer's Guild of America nomination (Long Form Original) for ''Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel'le.''
- IMDb Mini Biography By: JNorris
