L-R: Director and Screenwriter Gina Prince-Bythewood on the set with the Novelist of the book, Sue Monk KiddABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD (Screenwriter/Director)
Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed the widely acclaimed feature film LOVE & BASKETBALL, which premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Prince-Bythewood won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and a Humanitas Prize for her work on the film. Her other feature directing credits include the HBO film “Disappearing Acts.”
Prince-Bythewood obtained her first feature film producer credit in 2003 on BIKER BOYZ, a Dreamworks film which was co-written and directed by her husband, Reggie Rock Bythewood.
Prince-Bythewood studied at UCLA Film School, where she received the Gene Reynolds Scholarship for Directing and the Ray Stark Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduate.
Upon her graduation, she was immediately hired as a writer on the television series “A Different World.” She continued to write and produce for network television on series such as “Felicity,” “South Central,” “Courthouse” and “Sweet Justice” before making the transition to directing.
Her television directorial debut was the CBS Schoolbreak Special “What About Your Friends,” which won Prince-Bythewood an NACCP Image Award for Best Children’s Special and two Emmy nominations for writing and directing. She has also directed episodes of the hit television comedies “Everybody Hates Chris” and “Girlfriends.”
Prince-Bythewood currently resides in Southern California with her husband Reggie and their sons Cassius and Toussaint.
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SUE MONK KIDD (Author of Novel)
Sue Monk Kidd is the award-winning and bestselling author of the novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair, the acclaimed memoirs When the Heart Waits and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, and Firstlight, a collection of early writings.
The Secret Life of Bees has spent over two years on The New York Times best seller list, was chosen as the BookSense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, and was nominated for the prestigious Orange Prize in the U.K, among others.
The Mermaid Chair, a #1 New York Times bestseller, was awarded the 2005 Quill Award for General Fiction and adapted into a Lifetime TV movie. Each of Kidd’s novels has been translated into more than twenty-two languages.
Her new memoir, Traveling With Pomegranates, co-authored with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor, will be published in 2009. Kidd lives near Charleston, SC.
