Channing Godfrey Peoples is an American writer, director, and producer. Her feature film directorial debut ''

Miss Juneteenth ''Miss Juneteenth'' is a 2020 American drama film written and directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples and starring Nicole Beharie, Kendrick Sampson, and Alexis Chikaeze. The plot follows a single mom and former teen beauty queen who enters her daug ...

'' received critical acclaim.

Early life and education

Peoples was raised on the south side of

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

in what she referred to as "Black Texas". Her family regularly attended Black theatre performances, which influenced Peoples to read classic Black literature by writers such as

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

and

Gloria Naylor Gloria Naylor (January 25, 1950 – September 28, 2016) was an American novelist, known for novels including '' The Women of Brewster Place'' (1982)'', Linden Hills'' (1985) and '' Mama Day'' (1988)''.'' Early life and education Naylor was born ...

. She received her bachelor's degree in theater from

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

and her master of fine arts degree from

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

Career

''Miss Juneteenth''

Peoples began writing ''

'' in 2013, shortly after completing film school. She was inspired to write the film because she grew up attending

Juneteenth Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Deriving its name from combining "June" and "nineteenth", it is celebrated on the anniversary of General Order No. 3, i ...

celebrations and Miss Juneteenth pageants and the holiday holds great significance for her. She attended the Sundance Creative Producing Summit and other writing workshops to continue to develop the screenplay. When the film was in pre-production, Peoples was named one of ''Filmmaker Magazine'''s 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2018. ''Miss Juneteenth'', also Peoples' directorial debut, premiered at Sundance 2020 and was released VOD on Juneteenth of that year. The film received critical acclaim and holds a 99% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. She cites

Julie Dash Julie Ethel Dash (born October 22, 1952) is an American film director, writer and producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers ...

Jonathan Demme Robert Jonathan Demme ( ; February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017) was an American filmmaker. Beginning his career under B-movie producer Roger Corman, Demme made his directorial debut with the 1974 women-in-prison film ''Caged Heat'', before ...

, and her mentor Charles Burnett as influences.

Other work

Peoples wrote two episodes of the third season of ''

Queen Sugar Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...

''. In January 2021 it was announced that Peoples signed a first look deal with

Universal Content Productions Universal Content Productions (UCP) is an American television production company operating within the Universal Studio Group division of NBCUniversal. History Universal Cable Productions In July 2008, Universal Cable Productions was split off ...

. Her first scheduled project is to create a television adaptation of ''

''. Peoples' wrote and directed the short film ''Doretha's Blues'', which debuted at

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

in 2021. The movie stars

Tonea Stewart Tonea Stewart (born February 3, 1947), also Tommie Stewart, is an American actress and university professor. She is the former dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts of Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama.Catherine Bullo ...

and follows "a former musician whose son was killed by police and who can no longer find it in her to sing." She was inspired to write ''Doretha's Blues'' in the aftermath of Michael Brown's death, as she was interested in the lives of the family left behind. Like ''Miss Juneteenth'', the film is set in

, Texas.

Personal life

Peoples is married to producer Neil Creque Williams, whom she met in her graduate program at

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

. They have one daughter (b. 2018).

Filmography

Film

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Official Instagram
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peoples, Channing Godfrey Year of birth missing (living people) Living people African-American film directors American women film producers African-American screenwriters African-American women writers American women film directors Filmmakers from Texas People from Fort Worth, Texas Baylor University alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women