Barry Jenkins

Barry Jenkins (born 1979 in Miami, Florida) is an American filmmaker who studied film at the Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts. After the short film My Josephine and his first feature Medicine for Melancholy (2008), which earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature, he directed and co-wrote the drama Moonlight (2016), adapted from Tarell Alvin McCraney's play. Moonlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Jenkins was nominated for Best Director and shared the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay with McCraney. He followed it with If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) and moved into television with a chapter of Dear White People and the limited series The Underground Railroad (2021), which earned him a Peabody Award. He is also a creative collaborator in the Chopstars collective and appeared on the 2017 Time 100 list.