Melina Matsoukas is a two-time Grammy Award winner and four-time MTV Video Music Awards winner for her "We Found Love" and "Formation" music videos.
15 Facts About Melina Matsoukas
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Melina Matsoukas was honored with the Franklin J Schaffner Alumni Medal by the American Film Institute in 2019.
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Melina Matsoukas then worked as executive producer and director for television series Insecure, being nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2020.
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Melina Matsoukas's father worked as a builder, and her mother taught math in a local high school.
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When Melina Matsoukas was eight, the family moved to Hackensack, New Jersey, where she attended Hackensack High School.
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Melina Matsoukas's father is of mixed Greek and Jewish descent, and her mother is of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Jamaican descent.
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Melina Matsoukas earned her degree at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and completed her graduate work at the AFI Conservatory with an MFA in cinematography.
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Melina Matsoukas started out at Black Dog Film, then the now-defunct Gorilla Flix film production company, and is currently a director at Prettybird, which she has been signed to since 2011.
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In 2006, Melina Matsoukas directed her first music video upon completing grad school in 2006 for Red Handed's "Dem Girls " featuring Scooby and Paul Wall.
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In 2016, Melina Matsoukas contributed to Beyonce's visual album Lemonade with a music video for the album's lead single "Formation ".
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Between 2016 and 2017, Melina Matsoukas became the executive producer and director of several episodes of the critically and publicly acclaimed television series Master of None and Insecure including the acclaimed episode from Master of None "Thanksgiving", which would go on to win several Emmy Awards, though Melina Matsoukas herself would not be nominated for any awards for her work on the program.
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Melina Matsoukas was later nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
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Melina Matsoukas was nominated for two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series and the Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series.
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Melina Matsoukas won a Black Reel Awards, a BET Award, a National Board of Review Awards and was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directing - First Time Feature Film.
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In 2019, Matsoukas was honored with the Franklin J Schaffner Alumni Medal by the American Film Institute, and was named to the Ebony Power 100 List in 2020.