Celebrity Biographies
lee daniels
He has not needed to resort to the combative tone of other African-American directors such as Spike Lee, to denounce on the screen the problems of the most disadvantaged among his “brothers” today. Lee Daniels is making history among black directors. He has become the ideal black director of the Obama era.
Born on Christmas Eve 1959 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lee Louis Daniels had a difficult childhood marked by his tumultuous relationship with his father, a police officer. Because as he grew up, he never accepted that he was gay.
Despite his family problems, Daniels managed to get good grades in school. At 21, Daniels founded her own nursing agency. Soon, he sold the company for the not inconsiderable amount of 2 million dollars, and launched his career in show business. He became a casting director and agent for actors, some of a certain renown, such as Wes Bentley , for whom he got his role in American Beauty . The Hollywood celebrity documentary My Big Break shows Daniels in this facet of his life.
In the early 21st century, Daniels created his own production company, Lee Daniels Entertainment, whose first film was the hit Monster’s Ball , with which Halle Berry became the first African-American to win an Oscar for best actress. Her next work, The Woodcutter , had less impact , a harsh drama in which Kevin Bacon plays a pedophile who, after being released from prison, tries to reform himself.
Daniels teamed up with former President Bill Clinton to shoot a series of ads encouraging black youth to vote. His debut as a director was the failed Shadowboxer , about the relationship between two cold-blooded hit men. Although he first worked on this film with Mo’Nique , it received poor reviews and went largely unnoticed in theaters.
After producing Tennessee , which helped singer Mariah Carey establish herself as an actress, Lee has gone all-in with his second directorial effort, the gritty Precious , adapted from Sapphire’s novel “Push”. In the film, he collaborated again with Mo’Nique and Mariah Carey, although it stars newcomer Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe, who plays a teenager with obesity problems who has been sexually abused by her father. With the film, Daniels has become the first African-American to be nominated for a Directors Guild of America (DGA) award. He is the second nominee for best director at the Oscars, and also the second to get the statuette for best film.