Misan Sagay is a British-Nigerian screenwriter, best known for the 2013 film ''
Belle''.
Biography
Sagay was born in Nigeria and at the age of five moved with her parents to England.
["Misan Sagay: Telling Stories Through the Colorblind Lens"]
''SoulVision Magazine''. She graduated from
St Andrews University
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
with a First Class Honours degree in
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
then trained as a doctor at
St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London.
After qualifying as a doctor, she specialised in
Paediatric
Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...
Haematology
Hematology ( always spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the produc ...
and Critical Care and at the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
Children's Hospital.
Career
A former emergency room doctor, Sagay made her writing debut with the 1999 film ''The Secret Laughter of Women'' on which she was a writer and producer. She co-wrote the teleplay for the Oprah-produced television movie ''
Their Eyes Were Watching God
''Their Eyes Were Watching God'' is a 1937 novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston. It is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance, and Hurston's best known work. The novel explores main character Janie Crawford's "ripening from a v ...
'', based on the book by the same name.
![Dido_Elizabeth_Belle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Dido_Elizabeth_Belle.jpg)
Sagay wrote the 2013 British drama ''
Belle'' after visiting
Scone Palace
Scone Palace is a Category A-listed historic house near the village of Scone and the city of Perth, Scotland. Built in red sandstone with a castellated roof, it is an example of the Gothic Revival style in Scotland.
Scone was originally the s ...
, where she saw a unique portraiture of two women,
Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and her cousin
Lady Elizabeth Murray
Lady Elizabeth Mary Finch-Hatton (née Lady Elizabeth Mary Murray; 18 May 1760 – 1 June 1825) was a British aristocrat and the subject of a notable painting, once thought to be by Johann Zoffany, now attributed to David Martin.
Biography ...
. This painting, and the women within, acted as the inspiration for her screenplay.
The film tells the Story of Belle, the daughter of an enslaved African and a British admiral. The film discusses the prominence of African decedents and women in British society in the late 1700s.
In 2013, the authorship of the film was in dispute. The director of the film,
Amma Asante
Amma Asante (born 13 September 1969) is a British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress, and Chancellor at Norwich University of the Arts, who was born in London to parents from Ghana. Her love for the film industry started when she receive ...
, contested that she dismissed Sagay's writing and instead wrote her own adaptation of the story, seeking writing credit. Asante's claim caused the
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO
* The Writers Gu ...
to automatically investigate per the guild's regulations. The guild took the case through
arbitration and ruled in favour of Sagay as the sole writer. Asante appealed but lost.
In 2016, Sagay was a co-writer on the six-part limited TV series ''
Guerrilla'' from award-winning writer and producer
John Ridley
John Ridley IV (born 1965) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for '' 12 Years a Slave'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the a ...
, known as the screenwriter of ''
12 years A Slave
''Twelve Years a Slave'' is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D.C. ...
''. The ''
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
'' and
Sky Atlantic
Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HB ...
series stars award-winning actor
Idris Elba
Idrissa Akuna Elba (; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor. , known for the TV series ''
Luther
Luther may refer to:
People
* Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement
* Luther (give ...
''.
Sagay is a member of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
.
Away from screenwriting, Misan is creating a programme with the Tisch School of Fine Arts in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, which will help established connections between aspiring black screenwriters and established ones. The end goal is to help provide guidance to the next generation of talent.
Sagay is also a member of the ''Wolfe pack,'' a guild of 50 leading female Screenwriters working in Hollywood that aims to encourage more women to enter the film business.
Misan hopes also to be a catalyst for
African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
descendants to take charge of their own narratives. Sagan said in an interview with ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'': "Black women need to be in control of their own stories and that means hiring more black talent across all aspects of film and television".
Filmography
Awards, honors and nominations
Misan Sagay was nominated for a 2005
Black Reel Awards
The Black Reel Awards, or BRAs, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF) to recognize excellence of African Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the Afr ...
for Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted – Television for ''Their Eyes Were Watching God''
Sagay was nominated for a 2015
Black Reel Awards
The Black Reel Awards, or BRAs, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF) to recognize excellence of African Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the Afr ...
for Best Screenplay for ''Belle''.
Sagay received the 2015
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture for ''Belle''.
References
External links
*
*
*Scripts & Scribes Intervie
with Misan Sagay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sagay, Misan
British women screenwriters
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Black British filmmakers