John Singleton

Son of Danny Singleton, a mortgage broker, and Sheila Ward, a pharmaceutical company sales executive, and raised in separate households by his unmarried parents, John Singleton attended the Film Writing Program at USC, after graduating from high school in 1986. While studying there, he won three writing awards from the university, which led to a contract with Creative Artists Agency during his sophomore year. Columbia Pictures bought his script for Boyz n the Hood (1991) and budgeted it at $7 million. Singleton noted that much of the story comes from his own experiences in South Central LA and credited his parents with keeping him off the street.

Spouse

• Akosua Busia (12 October 1996 - 15 June 1997) ( divorced) ( 1 child)

Trade Mark

• Frequently cast hip-hop musicians (e.g. Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, Busta Rhymes)
• Films often centered around inner-city tension
• Frequently cast Tyrese Gibson

Trivia

• Attended and graduated from Blair High School in Pasadena, California (1986).
• Attended and graduated from the USC School of Cinema-Television (1990).
• Was the youngest person ever to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Director (at age 24) (1992).
• Loved to collect and read comic books.
• Started Ice Cube's acting career; on the Queen Latifah Show (1999), Ice Cube stated that John Singleton screen-tested him to see if he could act.
• Sentenced to make a short film about domestic violence after pleading no contest to charges he assaulted the mother of his 6-year-old daughter Cleopatra. He was also placed on three years' probation, fined $300, and ordered to undergo a year of domestic violence counseling (June 22, 1999).
• Has a daughter, Cleopatra Singleton (born 1993) who appeared in Baby Boy (2001).
• Was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. Crossed Spring 1987 at Beta Omega Chapter (USC, Pepperdine, LMU).
• He has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Boyz n the Hood (1991).
• Has one daughter with Ghanian princess Akosua Busia: Hadar Busia-Singleton (born April 3, 1997).
• Met Laurence Fishburne when he was a PA on Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986). Fishburne played Cowboy Curtis.
• Taught an Advanced Directing Class at the University of Southern California (spring 1997).
• Favorite films included Bicycle Thieves (1948), The 400 Blows (1959), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Jaws (1975) and Raging Bull (1980).
• Was a huge fan of Westerns. In fact, many of the shots in his films were influenced by the genre.
• Had family and friends in Switzerland.
• While in high school, Singleton learned "that the film business was controlled by screenplays". After graduating from high school in 1986, Singleton was accepted to the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television's prestigious Film Writing Program. During his four-year studies there, he won three writing awards. These achievements in writing earned Singleton a contract with the powerful Creative Artists Agency during his sophomore year at USC. Columbia wanted to make the picture, but at first wanted someone else to direct this. Singleton believed only he could do this, and did.
• Favorite directors were: Orson Welles, François Truffaut, Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa, John Cassavetes, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.
• Has two children with his former wife Tosha Lewis: Justice Maya Singleton (born October 17, 1992) and Maasai Mohandas Singleton (born April 3, 1994).
• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on August 26, 2003.
• Los Angeles, California: Honored by the African-American Steering Committee of the Directors Guild of America. [April 2013]
• Was working as an intern for The Arsenio Hall Show (1989) while writing the script of Boyz n the Hood (1991), which is also where he met Ice Cube, who went on to star in the movie.
• Singleton cited The Gunfighter (1950) as the film influencing him the most.
• Friends with Tyrese Gibson.
• He was the first African-American person to be nominated for Best Director at Academy Awards.
• His ritual for writing a new movie was buying a small three-hole notebook, buy a new pack of lined paper and then buy a pack of black Paper Mate pens (not blue or red).
• Grew up next to a drive-in movie theater and saw movies from the window of home.