Academy Award-nominated writer and director Dee Rees  made her commercial directing debut in 2018 with two Oscars  spots: The 60-second short film The Box for Walmart and the  star-studded spot “Make It Yours” for Samsung, in which Rees  also cameoed. On the same night, Rees made awards history  with her feature drama Mudbound, whose four Academy  Award nominations included Best Adapted Screenplay (for co writers Rees and Virgil Williams), making her the first African  American Woman ever to be nominated for Writing; and for  Cinematography, with DP Rachel Morrison becoming the first  woman nominated in that category. 

An alumna of New York University’s graduate film program  and a 2008 Sundance Screenwriting & Directing Lab Fellow,  Rees’s first feature Pariah premiered at Sundance in 2011 and  won Excellence in Cinematography Award for the festival’s  U.S. Dramatic competition. Pariah went on to be honored  with the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards; the Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Director;  and Outstanding Film –Limited Release at the GLAAD Media  Awards. 

Rees’s other work includes HBO film Bessie about the life  of singer Bessie Smith, which won four Primetime Emmys,  including the award for Outstanding Television Movie. She  has also written and directed TV episodes for Fox’s smash hit “Empire” and ABC’s miniseries “When We Rise,” about the  history of the modern gay rights movement.  

Her upcoming film projects include FilmNation’s An Uncivil  War, which tells the story of feminist activists Gloria Steinem  (reteaming Rees with Carey Mulligan for the part) and Florynce  “Flo” Kennedy’s efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment;  and a new adaptation of George Gershwin’s acclaimed  Broadway opera Porgy and Bess for MGM and Winkler Films.