Paul V. Grant

After a decade of trying to swimming upstream from the creative backwaters of producing local advertising, independent films and social-marketing campaigns throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, writer, producer, director and illustrator, Paul V. Grant finally got his chance to shine in the national spotlight as a winner of the 2004 Black Entertainment Television, Black AIDS Short-Subject Film Competition (BASS/RIU). This $25,000 production grant and national cable television broadcast allowed his many talents to be placed on full-display as co-writer, producer and director of the award-winning documentary-film `Tangy's Song!,' which tells the triumphant life story of Tangy Major, a gospel singer living with HIV. Born October 10, 1974, in Columbia, South Carolina, Paul V. Grant began his professional career during the early-1990s as a photojournalist, after studying filmmaking and photography at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Visual Arts in Richmond, Virginia. He eventually landed a position working as a production assistant at New Millennium Studios, Virginia's first full-service production studio, located outside of Richmond, Virginia, founded by veteran actor, producers, husband-wife team, Tim & Daphne Reid. There he found himself closer to the fulfilling his dreams of being a 'professional filmmaker' working on such noted film productions as the independent thriller Asunder and the first season of the critically-acclaimed Showtime Television series Linc's. Throughout the 1990s, Grant continued to earn his stripes writing, producing, independent short-films and local television projects, while honing his crafts as a freelance commercial photographer, illustrator and storyboard artist. He relocated to Washington, D.C., where he carved a living for himself penning radio and print public services announcements for social marketing campaigns. Most recently, in 2005, he served as unit production manager of the one-hour original dramatic film `Multitude of Mercies,' which premiered on B.E.T in December 2005. He is currently a resident of Washington, D.C., and producing the feature-length documentary film `The Masters of Ceremony' which chronicles the 60 year history of African-American radio announcers, and their influence on American popular culture after World War II.