Lee Daniels’ background is filled with bold stories as real and gritty as the narratives from the films he creates. By the age of 21, Daniels founded and ran his own health care agency, providing nurses to private homes and hospitals; he was simultaneously trying to be a screenwriter. After selling his health care business, and giving up screenwriting, he began managing actors such as Loretta Divine, Michael Shannon, Nastassja Kinsky, and Aishwarya Rai. Daniels turned to producing as a natural ... view more »
Lee Daniels’ background is filled with bold stories as real and gritty as the narratives from the films he creates. By the age of 21, Daniels founded and ran his own health care agency, providing nurses to private homes and hospitals; he was simultaneously trying to be a screenwriter. After selling his health care business, and giving up screenwriting, he began managing actors such as Loretta Divine, Michael Shannon, Nastassja Kinsky, and Aishwarya Rai. Daniels turned to producing as a natural result of trying to find and create great material for his clients; the organic leap to directing came soon after.
MONSTER’S BALL was the first film from Daniels’ production company, Lee Daniels Entertainment. The film marked Daniels as the first sole African-American producer of an Oscar®-winning and -nominated film. Halle Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her leading role as Letitia Musgrove, a struggling mother who tragically loses both her husband and overweight son.
Daniels’ previous project, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE, is the story of an overweight, illiterate girl raised in Harlem, sexually abused by her father and about to give birth to her second child, who salvages her future at an alternative school. Starring newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, and featuring a supporting cast that includes Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, and Lenny Kravitz, The Hollywood Reporter called PRECIOUS “a disturbing masterwork of human survival,” and Variety dubbed it “courageous and uncompromising,
PRECIOUS won two Academy Awards in 2010: Best Adapted Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher) and Best Supporting Actress (Mo’Nique). The film received a total of six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing, with Daniels nominated as Best Director; making him the second African-American director to be nominated for an Oscar. Daniels also received a historic nomination as the first African-American director to be nominated by the Directors Guild of America.
Daniels’ latest project, THE BUTLER, follows the life of a White House butler who served under eight different US Presidents over three decades, the film stars Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, John Cusack, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding, Jr. among others. THE BUTLER was released August 2013. The film has grossed over 100 million dollars to date, and is certain to receive multiple Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations.
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