Shaka King facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shaka King
King at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival
Born	(1980-03-07) March 7, 1980 (age 45) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	New York University Vassar College
Occupation	Filmmaker writer director
Years active	2009–present

Shaka King (born March 7, 1980) is an American filmmaker. He is known for directing and co-writing movies and TV shows. His most famous work is the 2021 film Judas and the Black Messiah.

About Shaka King

Shaka King was born on March 7, 1980, in Crown Heights, New York. He grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, another part of Brooklyn, New York. His parents were both public school teachers. They taught him a lot about African culture and history.

Early Life and Education

King was an only child. He went to school in different parts of Brooklyn, including East Harlem and Fort Greene. For middle and high school, he attended a private school in Bay Ridge. It was during these years that he discovered he loved creative writing.

After high school, King went to Vassar College. He studied political science and took his first class in making films. After college, he worked with young people and tutored them. He also spent time writing movie scripts. In 2007, he joined a film program at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. There, he was a student of the famous director Spike Lee. King's first full-length movie, Newlyweeds, was his final project for his master's degree.

Today, Shaka King lives in Brooklyn.

Shaka King's Film Career

Shaka King's first feature film, Newlyweeds, came out in 2013. It is about a young couple living in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The movie was shown for the first time at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Short Films and Key Projects

King also made several short films. In 2015, he presented a short film at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. His 2017 short film, LaZercism, starred actor Lakeith Stanfield. This film imagined a world where white people had a fictional eye condition that changed how they saw race.

Lakeith Stanfield also appeared in King's second major film, Judas and the Black Messiah. In this movie, Daniel Kaluuya played the role of Fred Hampton. The film was very successful. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, which are very important movie awards. Shaka King himself was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for this film.

Working in Television

More recently, Shaka King has started working on television projects. He has a special agreement with FX Productions to create TV shows. Film critics like Angelique Jackson from Variety have noted that King is one of the "Black filmmakers [who] are offering an unvarnished look at the legacy of the 1960s civil rights era, examining America’s tortured history of racism ..." This means his films help people understand important parts of American history, especially about civil rights.

Filmography

Short films

Feature films

Television shows

Awards and Nominations

Shaka King has received several awards and nominations for his work.