Tina Mabry


Tina Mabry is an American film director and screenwriter from Tupelo, Mississippi. Following the release of her first feature film Mississippi Damned, she was named one of '25 New Faces of Indie Film' by Filmmaker magazine and among the 'Top Forty Under 40' by The Advocate. Mabry was named a James Baldwin Fellow in Media by United States Artists.

Early life

Tina Mabry was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1978. After seeing Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry and Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball while an undergrad at the University of Mississippi, she determined she had to go into film and moved to Los Angeles. She received her Masters of Fine Arts in Cinema and Television from the University of Southern California.

Career

Mabry began her film career with her short film Brooklyn's Bridge to Jordan. In 2007, she penned the film Itty Bitty Titty Committee. The film was directed by Jamie Babbit and premiered at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival.
Mabry made her feature film directing debut in 2009 with Mississippi Damned, which she also wrote and acknowledges draws from aspects of her own life. She received a film stock grant from Kodak, which enabled her to film it. The film was successful on the festival circuit, winning top prizes at the Chicago International Film Festival, Outfest, American Black Film Festival, and Urbanworld Film Festival. It premiered on Showtime in 2011 and is currently streaming on Netflix courtesy of Ava DuVernay's ARRAY.
Mabry has written and directed two episodes of FutureStates produced by ITVS, including Ant starring Guillermo Díaz.
In 2015, Mabry was hired as a producer, writer, and director on the OWN series Queen Sugar, created by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey.

Personal life

Mabry is openly lesbian and married to producer, editor, and manager Morgan R. Stiff. They reside in Los Angeles, California.