Ayoka Chenzira is a renowned filmmaker, widely recognized as a pioneer in Black independent cinema, alongside a generation of African American filmmakers who collectively established this distinctive genre. Her impressive body of work encompasses a diverse range of mediums, including fiction, documentary, animation, performance, experimental narratives, interactive cinema, and television.
As a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA),Ayoka is one of the first African American women to write, produce, and direct a 35mm feature film, Alma's Rainbow, which was developed at the Sundance Institute and later listed in Billboard Magazine's top forty home video sales. Her groundbreaking animated satire, Hair Piece: a film for nappyheaded people, marked her as the first African American woman animator.
The success of Hair Piece led to its induction into the National Film Registry in 2018. Ayoka's films have been showcased in numerous international retrospectives and are part of permanent collections at esteemed institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In recent years, Ayoka has continued to make a mark in the industry, with her episode of Queen Sugar earning a 2019 NAACP Image Award nomination. Her work on Greenleaf, episode 407 - Reunited, is set to air in the spring of 2019.
