1. Amma Asante
Amma Asante (born 13 September 1969) is a British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress,
and Chancellor at NorwichUniversityof Arts born in London to parents from Ghana. She was born
in London, to Ghanaian parents: her mother was an entrepreneur who owned her own African
cosmetics and grocery store, and her accountant father received qualifications to work in the
United Kingdom.
Her love for the film industry started when she received her first role in BBC's Grange Hill
Amma Asante is a British BAFTA award winning screenwriter
and director, known for Belle (2013), and A Way of Life (2004).
She is a former child actress. Her love for the film industry
started when she received her first role at the age of 23 with
a script deals from both Channel 4 in the UK and BBC.
Writing and directing career
Amma Asante’s career started when she first attended a
performing arts school that allowed her to draft her first sitcom
script. Later, she became a child actress and made her first
appearances on television in Grange Hill and Desmond’s In
her late teens, Asante left acting and worked in screenwriting
with a development deal from Chrysalis. She founded a
production company, Tantrum Films, where she wrote and
produced two series of the BBC Two drama Brothers and
Sisters (1998)
Asante was appointed Member of the Order of the British
Empire (MBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to film.
In 2018, Asante became the first woman to receive the British Urban Film Festival honorary
award from actress Dona Croll for outstanding contribution to film and television.
Some quotes about her work
“I’mbi-cultural, I walk the division that Belle walked every day”- Amma Asante’s film ‘Belle’
"I wouldn't want audiences to come to Belle and think they were about to see '12 Years a Slave
Mark 2',"
When she first heard rumours of McQueen's "slave movie", she was already filming her own. "I
didn't know anything about the film itself. When you are making a movie, your head is completely
buried." But she remembers being horrified by the demeaning phrase "slave movie" – as if it
were now a genre.
2. To me this lady is really inspiring and motivational as she is a
British filmmaker with the same skintone as me. Normally you
don’t see a lot of British black females in the movie industry so
Amma has really inspired me to keep going and just focus on
my course to also become a movie producer one day without
caring too much about my skin complexion.
