Kiel Adrian Scott

Award-winning writer-director Kiel Adrian Scott's films have screened internationally and aired on HBO, PBS, CineMAX, Shorts TV, Centric and BET. Kiel's films have garnered him high praise, winning a multiplicity of film festivals and distinctions. His short film Samaria, won a Directors Guild of America Student Film Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, and was a finalist in the 2015 Student Academy Awards, marking Kiel's second time being a finalist in the lauded competition. Samaria is a short film adaptation of Kiel's feature length screenplay, Epilogue, which was also an inaugural selection of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sponsored Emerging Voices Program. Kiel's previous short, The Roe Effect, won Best Short Film at the American Black Film Festival's HBO Short Film Competition, Best Narrative Short at the Urbanworld Film Festival, CineSLAM, and the Saatchi & Saatchi NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE Producer's Award. The Roe Effect was nominated for Best Independent Mini Feature at the Black Reel Awards and was included in Cannes Film Festival's 2010 Short Film Corner. Of the film, Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme remarked, "Exquisitely made, fantastic in every single aspect, the themes are profound. Kiel is an incredibly exciting new American filmmaker. Bravo!" Kiel most recently directed three episodes of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney's new series David Makes Man, which will be premiering on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in the summer. Last year Kiel also directed BET's hit miniseries The Bobby Brown Story, which is nominated for three NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Television Movie, Limited Series or Dramatic Special. The series is the follow up to the acclaimed miniseries, The New Edition Story. The biopic premiered with 6.6 million viewers and made BET #1 Most Social Cable Primetime Network for two nights in a row, thanks to the overwhelmingly positive response of fans on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Kiel is an alumnus of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, one of the most highly regarded and selective universities in the United States. Every student awarded admission into The Cooper Union receives a full tuition scholarship; a considerable blessing for Kiel and so many of his fellow students / alumni. Kiel is also a graduate of New York University's Graduate Film Program where he was awarded a full tuition Dean's Fellowship, was a Spike Lee Fellow, and served as Professor Spike Lee's Graduate Teaching Assistant. After completing his academic coursework, Kiel was asked by Lee to serve as his assistant on his professional projects. Kiel collaborated with Lee, as a co-writer, on his recent feature length film and first foray into video games, NBA 2K16's Livin' Da Dream. Kiel's personal filmic works are investigations of the psychological ramifications of being undervalued and marginalized in modern society. Addressing issues ranging from homelessness to homophobia, racial animosity to the erosion of women's reproductive rights, Kiel's films are ultimately about the consequences of not caring for others. In addition to pursuing his personal feature film works, Kiel has been eagerly exploring opportunities to work in television. He is an alumnus of Ryan Murphy's HALF Foundation television directing mentorship diversity initiative, and is currently developing a dramatic fiction anthology series exploring the American actuality and the consequences of othering. For more information on Kiel and his upcoming feature film and television projects please continue to visit: www.kieladranscott.com