Leon Earns DGA Nomination for 'RAISIN'

The Directors Guild of America announced the Guild's nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television, Documentaries and Commercials for the year 2008.

Kenny Leon, received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Miniseries nomination for the TV version of A Raisin in the Sun. For a complete list of nominees go here.

The winners will be announced at the 61st Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 31, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Leon's Broadway credits include Radio Golf, August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean (five Tony nominations) and the Tony Award-winning revival of A Raisin in the Sun, both featuring Phylicia Rashad; for the latter, he earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play. Other directing credits include the Off-Broadway hit Emergence-See featuring Daniel Beaty, Blues for an Alabama Sky, and From the Mississippi Delta (Huntington Theatre).

Leon is cofounder and artistic director of True Colors Theatre Company, dedicated to diversity and the preservation of African-American classics; prior to that, he was artistic director of the ALLIANCE THEATRE for more than a decade, where he produced ten world premieres, including Elton John's Aida and Debbie Allen's Soul Possessed. Other recent directing credits include the world premiere of Toni Morrison's opera Margaret Garner as well as the film adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, featuring Phylicia Rashad and Sean Combs, soon to be released on network television in collaboration with Sony and ABC.

Leon has directed extensively at regional theatres throughout the country, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Rep, Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Boston's Huntington Theatre, Hartford Stage, Baltimore's Center Stage, New York's Public Theatre, Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Dallas Theatre Center, GA Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, and the Theatre of the Stars. One of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2004, he received the MIT Eugene McDermott Award in addition to Martell Cognac's "Rise Above Award," honoring his artistry and entrepreneurial spirit, and is currently the face of Martell.

Leon is a graduate and honorary Ph.D of Clark Atlanta University and was chosen as one of the "Top 20 Southerners to Watch" by London's Financial Times.

The highly acclaimed "ABC World Premiere Movie Event: A Raisin in the Sun" aired on February 25th, 2008.

The movie was executive-produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron's Storyline Entertainment, Sean Combs' Bad Boy World Wide Entertainment Group and Sony Pictures Television. The show's Broadway producers, Carl Rumbaugh, Susan Batson and David Binder, also served as executive producers. Kenny Leon, who received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Director for his staging of the play on Broadway, made his film debut with the movie; and Paris Qualles, writer of the critically acclaimed and Emmy-nominated "Tuskeegee Airmen" and "The Rosa Parks Story," adapted Hansberry's play for the new movie event.

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron produced Hairspray, executive-produced the Oscar-winning Best Picture Chicago and the Emmy-winning Gypsy, Cinderella, Annie, Serving in Silence and Life with Judy Garland. Their films have won six Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, eleven Emmy Awards and two Peabodys. For their work in television, their movies have amassed 66 Emmy nominations.

 

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