Hanelle Culpepper facts for kids

Hanelle M. Culpepper is a talented American director and producer for television and movies. She is well-known for directing episodes of popular shows like 90210, Parenthood, Criminal Minds, and Star Trek: Discovery.

Hanelle Culpepper made history by becoming the first woman and first African American director to launch a new Star Trek series. She directed the first three episodes of Star Trek: Picard in 2020. She also directed and helped produce the first episode of the new Kung Fu series in 2021. Before working on TV shows, she directed and produced short films. She also directed several thriller movies.

Early Life and Education

Hanelle Culpepper grew up in Alabama in a family that really loved movies and TV. At first, she thought she wanted to be an actor. But her parents noticed something important. She was always directing her brothers and sisters in plays she wrote and put on.

Her father worked for a phone company in Birmingham. He became one of the first African American leaders at that company. Her mother was a homemaker who later worked in a bank and for the city government.

Culpepper went to Indian Springs School, a private high school near Birmingham. In her last year of high school, she decided she wanted to be a director. This happened after she directed her first play, a funny one-act show.

She then went to Lake Forest College in Illinois. She was very active in theater there. She studied economics and French and graduated with high honors. She later earned her master's degree from USC Annenberg School for Communication.

Career Highlights

Hanelle Culpepper is the director and a co-executive producer for the first episode of the new Kung Fu TV series. This show is a modern version of a popular 1970s TV show. The new series stars Olivia Liang as a young Chinese American woman named Nicky Chen.

Culpepper shared that she was proud to show "an authentic and honest portrayal of a Chinese American family." In March 2020, filming for the Kung Fu pilot had to stop. This was because of rules put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This delay meant the show's launch was moved to later in 2021.

Awards and Recognition

In 2021, Hanelle Culpepper was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. This award was for her amazing directing work on the Star Trek: Picard episode called "Remembrance."

This was her second time being nominated for an Image Award. Her first nomination was in 2015 for an episode of Criminal Minds called "The Edge of Winter."

Personal Life

Hanelle Culpepper met her husband, Jeffrey Meier, when she was working as an intern at Sony. She was studying film for her master's degree at the time.

Television Directing Work

See also

In Spanish: Hanelle Culpepper para niños