Roger Ross Williams

Roger Ross Williams

Roger Ross Williams (born September 16, 1970) is an award-winning director, producer and writer and the first African American director to win an Oscar, with his short film Music by Prudence. Williams has directed a number of acclaimed films including Life, Animated, which won the Sundance Film Festival Directing Award, was nominated for an Academy Award and won three Emmys in 2018, including the award for Best Documentary. He also directed God Loves Uganda, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award and American Jail, which examined the U. S. prison system and premiered on CNN. Williams’ directed Traveling While Black, a VR documentary made for Facebook’s Oculus, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. His most recent film, The Apollo, a documentary about Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater, was the opening night film of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and he is currently in pre-production on his first narrative feature film for Amazon Studios. His production company, One Story Up, is producing a variety of projects including two limited documentary series for Netflix.

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