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Writer/Director Noel Calloway is a skilled storyteller with script and camera alike. As a writer, he has authored eleven feature length screenplays ranging in subject from dramas provoking thought and emotion to edge of the seat thrillers and romantic comedies. Noel has written, directed and produced films that have been distributed and licensed through AMC Theaters, BET and Viacom Networks, Aspire TV and TV One to name a few. A burgeoning Director, his first turn behind the camera - Life, Love, Soul - displayed a keen ability to guide talented actors and bring a quality script to life. "Life, Love, Soul" won the prestigious Audience Award at the Urban World Film Festival in New York City before being released in AMC theaters across the country then licensed to BET Networks. He has Written, Directed and Produced short films - Two Days in Harlem, Happy Birthday, Documentaries - Men Of Courage, NYFW Black and is in development on two scripted series - Lost & Found and The Green Blocks. In addition, Noel is most passionate about his 'most important jobs,' Father to fourteen year old Kellen, and Husband to his wife Letitia. He states "If I had a few more millions my life would be perfect. I get to do what I love and my family is amazing, it could have gone a different way so I'm grateful."
It definitely started a different way. Noel was raised in Harlem, New York in the drug riddled 1980s and 1990s. He attended the Frederick Douglass Academy who's mantra "without struggle there is no progress" has become a governing principle of his life and work. Catalyzed by a tumultuous childhood that saw each of his parents incarcerated, time in the foster care system and his mother's untimely death when he was sixteen, Noel vowed to break the cycle of his family's previous generation and "establish a new legacy for my children and their children." He was charged with shielding his younger sisters from the chaos that pervaded his life and credits that early responsibility as the main reason he has always been doggedly focused on reaching his goals and avoiding the pitfalls of those in his home and his neighborhood. Shortly after the passing of his mother, who he counts as his "hero and the greatest example of strength and courage," Noel visited the townships of post-apartheid South Africa with a school group, a trip that profoundly changed his life. "Seeing the spirit and the joy of the native South Africans despite the conditions of the townships - no floors, no running water, things I couldn't imagine. They never stopped being joyful though, they never allowed us to look at them as victims or charity. Something clicked for me, I refused to ever feel sorry for myself or use anything that happened to me, even losing my mother, as an excuse that would undermine my future."
He went on to study film at Clark Atlanta University where he found further motivation. "I saw so many smart, talented Black people who didn't all come from poverty and struggle. It showed me that Black culture was bigger than what I saw on my block." After finishing his studies , he returned to New York where he continued to write screenplays while establishing a career in youth services before making the full time transition into the film business. Noel brings an unapologetic candor to filmmaking that reflects the beautiful dichotomy that has characterized his life. He references the mid 1990's when Black film was at its apex as the blueprint for his career aspirations. Films like Boomerang, Higher Learning, Love and Basketball, etc represent the types of stories Calloway has slated for production over the next five years. "It's my job to tell our stories, not just my own but the stories of my generation" he states "Filmmaking gives our stories the depth and latitude they deserve... there are so many stories."
