Kerry David

Producer / Writer / Director, Kerry David has been working in the film and television industry for over 20 years. She began her career at Paramount Pictures in Business Affairs learning the contract side of filmmaking, followed by three years working exclusively for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman honing her production skills. Films with TC & NK include; Mission Impossible 2, Without Limits, Portrait of a Lady, Peacemaker, Practical Magic, The Blue Room, and Eyes Wide Shut with legendary director Stanley Kubrick. Armed with this experience, Kerry started her own production company. She co-produced the award-winning DVD Deposing the Usual Suspects, followed by Agent Cody Banks and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. She subsequently produced Perfect Romance for Lifetime Television, as well as the critically acclaimed, feature documentary; My Date with Drew. This documentary won multiple awards around the world, including the Audience Award for Best Feature at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival, Best Feature at the NY Gen Art Film Festival, and the Audience Award at The Locarno International Film Festival and garnered a worldwide theatrical release. After Drew she produced Expert Insight: Short Game Golf with Jim Furyk & Fred Funk, which won a Telly Award for Outstanding Instructional Content and Cinematic Excellence. Kerry's next feature was adapted from the New York Times bestseller Like Dandelion Dust by Karen Kingsbury. Kerry hired her friend, Oscar nominee Stephen J. Rivele (Ali, Nixon) to adapt the book, and the film was released by 20th Century Fox, starring Mira Sorvino, Barry Pepper and Cole Hauser. Like Dandelion Dust won more than 35 film festival accolades, including awards from the Heartland Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. It also premiered at the prestigious Deauville Film Festival in France where it won the Premiere Audience Award for Best Feature. She produced her fourth documentary, Making Miles - The Miles Davis Story and followed that up by producing, writing and co-directing Seeking Happily Ever After, which was one of only 25 films accepted into the Sundance Film Lab as a work in progress. It was also used by Stanford University's law department as a case study for fair use practices and was distributed by Lionsgate Films. From 2010-2013 Kerry took a leave of absence from Hollywood to build an orphanage in Ghana, West Africa. She worked with a team of architects, a contractor from Habitat for Humanity and a small team of Ghanaians to design, budget and build a Musical Village for Orphans. Ever a filmmaker, she produced, wrote and directed several mini-documentaries to raise funds for the orphanage and generate awareness. After negotiating for the land with three tribal chiefs, staffing and establishing the orphanage, she launched it in 2013. Working with the kind people in Ghana will remain a highlight of her life. In 2014, at the forefront of the crowdfunding campaign phase, she raised over $500,000 for various non-profits, productions and artists. When Kerry learned of the destruction inflicted on endangered species from poaching in Africa and Asia, she was moved to take action, launching the innovative non-profit www.OverandAboveAfrica.com in 2016. In 2017, she directed, wrote & produced the multiple award winning feature documentary, "Bill Coors: The Will to Live" for a 2018 theatrical release. She then produced, wrote and directed an educational version of the film for school curriculums with a running time of 31 minutes. In 2019 she completed directing, producing and writing her passion project, the feature documentary; "Breaking Their Silence: Women on the Frontline of the Poaching War". BTS won seventeen film festivals, including Jury Award & Audience Award for Best Documentary at San Diego International Film Festival and the Durango Film Festival. www.BreakingTheirSilence.com In 2020 - She started filming the feature documentary, "Open Secret" about racism, corruption, cover-up and collusion in North Carolina. She is currently editing for a 2021 completion. In addition to her award-winning film work, Kerry recently gave a talk at TED X Charlottesville about her film Breaking Their Silence and has been a guest speaker, panelist, and moderator at artist's groups and schools such as University of Southern California, University of California at Los Angeles, Pepperdine University, and the New York Film Academy. She has written articles for various magazines and online outlets, including MovieMaker Magazine and Script. She is a voting member of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) and has been asked to give a TedX talk this November.