Tina Gordon Chism releases her first feature film Peeples today in theaters nationwide. The film marks one of extremely few times a major Hollywood company backs a film directed by a black woman.
“A lot of times the writer is shut out of the filmmaking process,” Chism explains. “And with this, because it was a comedy, because I wanted the jokes to play in a specific way, it was very hard for me to let it go. I had a really clear idea of what I wanted things to look like. I’m so grateful that I got the opportunity to see it through.”
Peeples tells the story of a happily cohabitating couple who are deeply in love, except for one catch: he hasn’t met the in-laws.
Born in New York City, Troy Byer Bailey spent many years acting before pursuing a screenwriting and directing career. She had a seven-year stint on Sesame Street, starting from the age of four, and later studied acting at City University of New York’s School for the Arts.
There’s a new girl or secretary on the block on AMC’s Mad Men. Teyonah Parris plays Dawn Chambers, secretary to ad executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm). And for the first time, the series has a recurring African American character. 
Angela Robinson completed a B.A. in theatre at Brown University and an MFA at New York University. She’s probably best known for her 2004 film D.E.B.S., which starred Meagan Good, about a group of high school girls groomed to become secret agents. Robinson’s 2005 G-rated film Herbie Fully Loaded starring Lindsay Lohan and Michael Keaton is the highest grossing film directed by a black woman, grossing over $144 million at the box office worldwide. 
In 1994, Darnell Martin became the first black American woman to write and direct a film for a major Hollywood studio, Columbia Pictures, with her debut feature film I Like It Like That. The film was also screened in the Cannes Film Festival’s “Un Certain Regard” competition. In 2008, Martin wrote and directed Cadillac Records which starred Beyoncé Knowles.
Director/producer Tamra Davis’ documentary Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010) gives an intimate portrait of how Basquiat went from being an unknown in the art world, scrawling his trademark SAMO (Same Old Shit) graffiti, to becoming one of the most recognizable faces in New York City and one of the world’s most prolific artists. But Davis alludes to the perils of such overnight celebrity, as Basquiat reached international stardom at age 23 and overdosed on heroin at age 27. 
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