Person biography:
Amma Asante was born on September 13, 1969, in London to parents from Ghana. She is a Ghanian-British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress, and Chancellor at Norwich University of the Arts.
Asante trained in dance and drama at the Barbara Speake Stage School in Acton, where she drafted her first script. She later became a child actress, performing in Grange Hill and other British series.
In her late teens, Asante left acting and worked in screenwriting. She founded a production company, Tantrum Films, where she wrote and produced two series of the drama Brothers and Sisters in the late 1990s.
Asante made her directorial debut with the feature film A Way of Life in 2004, which received multiple awards and honours from around the world.
Her second feature film, Belle, was a period drama that became one of the most successful independent releases of the year. It garnered eight awards and eighteen other nominations at various festivals.
In 2013, Asante won the Palm Springs International Film Festival's Directors to Watch Award. The following month, a special screening of the film took place at the United Nations headquarters, as well as in both Los Angeles and New York to honor BAFTA's naming of Asante as a "Brit to Watch."
Asante's third feature film, A United Kingdom, was screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and opened the 60th London Film Festival.
In 2018, Asante's feature film Where Hands Touch released to mixed-to-negative reviews. She directed two episodes each of The Handmaid's Tale in 2019 and Mrs. America in 2020.
Asante has received numerous accolades for her work, including the 2018 Black Reel for Outstanding World Cinema Motion Picture and was nominated for the Women Film Critics Circle's Courage in Filmmaking Award.
She has also been appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her service to film and has received the British Urban Film Festival's honorary award for outstanding contribution to film and television.
In 2020, Norwich University of the Arts appointed Asante as their new chancellor. Powerlist listed Asante in its 2020 and 2021 lists of the top 100 most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent.
