Morehouse Filmmaker Focuses on Finding Missing Black Girls (with Avery O. Williams)

A priest and an attorney. That’s the career path Avery O. Williams sought as a student at Morehouse College. But after the Chicago native read renowned director Spike Lee’s book, it sparked a deeper interest in film and showed him Hollywood was wherever you create it to be. He left his law dreams, was accepted to NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, and has spent the past three decades working with some of biggest names in film and TV. Williams wrote the recently released Lifetime Original Movie: “Abducted at an HBCU: A Black Girl Missing Story," starring Naturi Naughton, Tanyell Quian, and Mark Hood, which was filmed in part at Morehouse. He discusses his journey as a screenwriter, his decision to shine a light on missing Black girls and women, and how his -HBCU prepared him to be an innovator in the film industry.

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