Biography
Ayoka "Ayo" Chenzira (born November 8, 1953) is an independent African-American producer, director, animator, writer, experimental filmmaker, and transmedia storyteller in film and television. She is recognized as the first African American woman animator and among the few Black experimental filmmakers active since the late 1970s. Chenzira studied film and photography at The College of New Rochelle and earned her M.A. in education from Columbia University. She holds a B.F.A. in film production from New York University. In 1984, she was one of seven writer/directors selected by the Sundance Institute. Chenzira was one of the first African-American women to produce a feature-length film with Alma's Rainbow (1993) and has received international acclaim for her work.
Her contributions as a pioneering African American woman film educator and filmmaker have led media outlets to describe her as a media activist advocating for social justice and challenging mainstream media stereotypes of African Americans. She has been involved with various organizations supporting Black filmmakers, including the Black Filmmakers Foundation, Red Carnelian, and Production Partners. Alongside 14 other panelists, Chenzira contributed to the Minority Task Force on Public Television, which established the first Multicultural Public Television Fund. She has also served as a media panelist for the Jerome Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and New York State Council on the Arts.
Chenzira chaired the Department of Media and Communication Arts at the City College of New York, overseeing programs in advertising, public relations, journalism, film, and video. She co-developed their inaugural M.F.A. graduate program in media arts production. During the mid-1990s, she consulted for M-Net Television in South Africa and taught screenwriting and directing in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa. In 2001, Chenzira was appointed the first William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Arts at Spelman College, where she created and directed the award-winning Digital Moving Image Salon (DMIS), a year-long research and documentary production course. She also founded and directed Oral Narratives and Digital Technology, a collaboration between Spelman College and the Durham Institute of Technology, designing and teaching documentary filmmaking primarily for Zulu students.
Chenzira has received numerous honors, including the 2020 Cultural Innovator Award from Black Women Animate and Cartoon Network, the inclusion of her 2018 work Hair Piece in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, two awards from the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and a NAACP Award nomination. In 2019, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences began restoring and preserving her films. She has been recognized for her contributions to Black cinema by former mayors of New York City and Detroit.
