Biography
Amma Asante (born 13 September 1969) is a Ghanaian-British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress, and Chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts. Born in London to Ghanaian parents, she has earned numerous international awards for her directing, with her films often addressing social themes such as cultural conflict and issues of gender and race.
Asante trained in dance and drama at the Barbara Speake Stage School in Acton, where she also wrote her first script. She began her career as a child actress, appearing in Grange Hill and other British television series. She took part in the 1980s "Just Say No" anti-drugs campaign and was among nine Grange Hill child actors who visited the White House to meet First Lady Nancy Reagan. In her late teens, Asante transitioned from acting to screenwriting. She founded Tantrum Films, a production company through which she wrote and produced two series of the drama Brothers and Sisters in the late 1990s. In 2004, she made her directorial debut with the feature film A Way of Life, which earned multiple international awards and honors. In the UK, she received the London Film Festival’s inaugural Alfred Dunhill UK Film Talent Award, a BAFTA Film Award, and was nominated for Best Newcomer by both the Evening Standard and the London Film Critics.
Her second feature, the 2013 period drama Belle, received critical acclaim and became one of the year’s most successful independent films. It won eight awards and received eighteen additional nominations at various festivals, including a British Independent Film Award and two NAACP Image Awards. In January 2014, Asante was honored with the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Directors to Watch Award. The following month, Belle was screened at the United Nations headquarters, as well as in Los Angeles and New York, in recognition of BAFTA naming Asante a "Brit to Watch."
Asante’s third feature film, A United Kingdom, premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and opened the 60th London Film Festival. Like her previous films, it earned several festival nominations. For this work, Asante won the 2018 Black Reel Award for Outstanding World Cinema Motion Picture and was nominated for the Women Film Critics Circle’s Courage in Filmmaking Award.
In 2018, her film Where Hands Touch was released to mixed and negative reviews. She directed two episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale in 2019 and two episodes of Mrs. America in 2020.
In 2014, the London Film School named Asante an Honorary Associate. She has served as an elected member of the BAFTA Council and as a BAFTA Film Committee member. In 2017, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her contributions to film. The following year, she became the first woman to receive the British Urban Film Festival’s honorary award for outstanding contribution to film and television, the festival’s highest honor. In 2020, Norwich University of the Arts appointed her as Chancellor. Asante was included in the Powerlist’s 2020 and 2021 rankings of the 100 most influential people in the UK of African or African-Caribbean descent.
12 wins and 10 nominations
