IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (2018) About The Director and Cast

Director BARRY JENKINS with cast KIKI LAYNE , STEPHAN JAMES , and REGINA KING

Academy Award winner BARRY JENKINS was born and raised in Miami, Florida. The Florida State University graduate's feature film debut, Medicine for Melancholy, was hailed as one of the best films of 2009 by The New York Times and received several Independent Spirit and Gotham Award nominations.

Mr. Jenkins, along with playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his second feature, Moonlight, which won Best Picture at both the Oscars and the Golden Globes [Drama]. In addition to earning eight Academy Award nominations, ten Critics' Choice Awards nominations, six Golden Globe Award nominations and four BAFTA Award nominations, Moonlight won Best Feature and Director at the Gotham Awards and Best International Film at the British Independent Film Awards. The New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review named him Best Director, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association named him Best Director and the film Best Picture. Mr. Jenkins was also the recipient of a DGA Award nomination and the winner of the WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

He directed an episode in the first season of the Netflix original series Dear White People. His upcoming projects include an adaptation of National Book Award winner Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad for Amazon, which he will pen and direct. He is also writing a script for a coming-of-age drama based on the life of the first American Female Olympic boxing champ, Clarissa "T-Rex" Shields.

Mr. Jenkins is a curator at the Telluride Film Festival and a United States Artists Smith Fellow.

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KIKI LAYNE , a native of Cincinnati, marks her first leading role in a film with If Beale Street Could Talk.

Ms. Layne recently completed work on Native Son, starring opposite Ashton Sanders, Margaret Qualley, and Nick Robinson; the movie, directed by Rashid Johnson and adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks from Richard Wright's classic novel, is slated for release in early 2019. Also next year, she and Mr. Sanders star in Captive State, directed by Rupert Wyatt.

The Chicago Tribune featured Ms. Layne as one of its "2016 Hot New Faces of Chicago Theater." Her stage credits include starring in the U.S. premiere of Octagon at the Jackalope Theatre and garnering a Black Theater Alliance Award (BTAA) nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play; Genesis, at the Definition Theatre; Good People, at the Redtwist Theatre; Griffin Theatre's touring production of Letters Home; and Definition Theatre and The New Colony's co-production of Byhalia, Mississippi, earning her BTAA nominations for Best Featured Actress in a Play and Most Promising Actress.

She graduated with a BFA in acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University.

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STEPHAN JAMES can next be seen starring opposite Julia Roberts in Amazon's limited series Homecoming, a psychological thriller based on Gimlet Media's podcast. Mr. James, a native of Canada, has held the honor of portraying several real-life figures in African-American history. He starred as Olympics hero Jesse Owens in Race, directed by Stephen Hopkins, for which he received an NAACP Image Award nomination and won a Canadian Screen Award; and in the limited series Shots Fired.

He starred as T.K. Kelly, the #1 high school running back in the U.S., in the inspirational fact-based sports tale When the Game Stands Tall; directed by Thomas Carter, the film told the story of the De La Salle High School Spartans football team and their unmatched winning streak. Among his other films are Stanley Brooks' Perfect Sisters, alongside Georgie Henley and Abigail Breslin; Director X's Undone (also known as Across the Line); and David Sutherland's Home Again, with Tatyana Ali and Lyriq Bent, for which he earned his first Canadian Screen Award nomination.

In Ava DuVernay's drama Selma, one of the most acclaimed films of recent years, Mr. James portrayed John Lewis, the son of sharecroppers and a student activist with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; Mr. Lewis later became a U.S. Congressman. The drama illuminated the progress of protest marches in Selma, Alabama. His other awards include the Rising Star Award at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival; and, with his fellow Selma actors, the Black Film Critics Circle Award for Best Ensemble.

In his free time Mr. James performs his own rap music and stays active with basketball, football, soccer, kickboxing, and track and field.

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Whether as actress, producer, or director, REGINA KING 's talents continue to be acknowledged by the creative community. She was recently nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Entertainer of the Year.

She won two Emmy Awards - for two different characterizations - on the acclaimed anthology series American Crime, and was nominated for a third. Her portrayals on the show also brought her a Golden Globe Award nomination and a Critics' Choice and NAACP Image Award, among other accolades.

Ms. King was born and raised in Los Angeles. She made her debut on the comedy series 227, and was part of the ensemble for all five seasons of the hit show. She then made the leap to movies with her role in Oscar-nominated writer/director John Singleton's powerful feature debut Boyz n the Hood, reteaming with the filmmaker for Poetic Justice (with Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur) and Higher Learning. Comedic turns in the beloved Friday, directed by F. Gary Gray and with Ice Cube and Christ Tucker, and Martin Lawrence's A Thin Line Between Love and Hate followed.

Ms. King then starred opposite Cuba Gooding Jr., in his Academy Award-winning performance, in Cameron Crowe's blockbuster Jerry Maguire. Among her many films since have been such hits as How Stella Got Her Groove Back, directed by Kevin Sullivan and starring Angela Bassett; Tony Scott's Enemy of the State, with Will Smith; Steve Carr's Daddy Day Care, opposite Eddie Murphy; Charles Herman-Wurmfeld's Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, with Reese Witherspoon; John Pasquin's Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, alongside Sandra Bullock; and Taylor Hackford's Best Picture Oscar nominee Ray, in which she starred opposite Jamie Foxx in his Oscar-winning portrayal of Ray Charles. Her performance in the latter film brought her and Aunjanue Ellis of If Beale Street Could Talk a shared Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, as well as earning Ms. King the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

She starred as LAPD Detective Lydia Adams on all five seasons of the acclaimed drama series Southland, and won NAACP Image Awards for her portrayal as well as for her direction of the episode "Off Duty." Among her other directorial credits are episodes of This Is Us, The Good Doctor, Shameless, Animal Kingdom, Pitch, Greenleaf, and Scandal; the BET Network telefilm Let the Church Say Amen, for which Ms. King was a Black Reel Award nominee; and several episodes of Being Mary Jane, starring Gabrielle Union.

She starred in the second season of The Leftovers, again receiving a Critics' Choice Award nomination; has played recurring roles or done guest-starring arcs on The Big Bang Theory, Shameless, 24, and The Strain; starred, in voice performances, on the popular animated series The Boondocks; and recently had the lead role in the drama series Seven Seconds, for which she was again an Emmy Award winner.

Ms. King's production company is named Royal Ties, through which she and her sister Reina King develop television projects to produce and direct.