Shaka King

Shaka King is an American filmmaker, writer, director, and screenwriter born on March 7, 1980 in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. An only child of Afro‑centric public‑school teachers, his mother’s lineage traces to Barbados and Panama while his father’s roots lie in Panama, giving him a rich multicultural heritage that informs his storytelling. Raised in Bedford‑Stuyvesant and educated in East Harlem, Fort Greene, and later a predominantly white preparatory school in Bay Ridge, King discovered a love for creative writing during high school, a passion that would later evolve into film. He pursued political science at Vassar College, where he also took his first film production class, and after graduating worked as a youth counselor while honing his screenwriting craft. In 2007 he entered NYU Tisch’s graduate film program, studying under Spike Lee; his MFA thesis became his debut feature Newlyweeds, a sardonic portrait of a Brooklyn couple’s marijuana‑filled existence that premiered at Sundance in 2013. In the years that followed, King expanded his oeuvre with the short Mulignans (Sundance 2015) and the provocative LaZercism (2017), a satirical vignette starring Lakeith Stanfield that imagines a world where white people suffer from “racial glaucoma.” His breakthrough arrived with the 2021 biopic Judas and the Black Messiah, which he co‑wrote and directed, earning six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for King himself. The film’s powerful depiction of Fred Hampton, portrayed by Daniel Kaluuya, cemented King’s reputation as a vital voice in contemporary Black cinema, echoing the insights of critics who note his unvarnished look at the civil‑rights era. Beyond the big screen, King signed a first‑look deal with FX Productions in 2021, signaling a move into television development. Today he resides in Brooklyn, continuing to champion stories that blend political urgency with personal nuance, and shaping the next generation of Afro‑centric filmmakers.