Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Executive Producer, and Actor John Daniel Singleton was born on January 6, 1968 in South Central Los Angeles. He is the son of a mortgage broker father and a company sales executive mother who raised him jointly while divorced. While studying film at USC, he won three writing awards from the university that led to a deal with the Creative Artists Agency during his sophomore year. At the age of 23, he wrote and directed Boyz 'N the Hood, a coming-of-age drama that centered on a 17-year-old's (Cuba Gooding Jr.) efforts to make it out of his neighborhood alive. Featuring a strong cast that included Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, and Laurence Fishburne, and skillful direction that humanized the violence of South Central L.A. rather than sensationalized it, the film was a major critical and commercial triumph. One of the highest-grossing films in history to have been directed by a Black American, Boyz 'N the Hood also made history with its twin Best Screenplay and Best Director Oscar nominations for its young writer/director. John Singleton became the first Black American and the youngest person to be nominated for Best Director. In addition to those nominations, Singleton was also honored with the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First-Time Director.
Singleton followed Boyz 'N the Hood with Poetic Justice in 1993. Starring Janet Jackson as its heroine, a South Central L.A. hairdresser coping with the shooting death of her boyfriend, the film boasted magnetic performances from its entire cast, which also included rapper Tupac Shakur as Jackson's love interest. Between the releases of Boyz and Justice, Singleton directed the Michael Jackson music video "Remember the Time" in 1992. His next project, Higher Learning (1995), a drama about racial, gender, and political conflict on a college campus, it benefited from the performances of its ensemble cast, which included Omar Epps, Laurence Fishburne, and Ice Cube.
Ironically, it was Singleton's most critically appreciated effort since Boyz 'N the Hood that was virtually ignored by audiences. The 1997 Rosewood, a powerful drama based on the real-life 1923 massacre and destruction of a Black town in Florida by Whites from a neighboring community, was widely considered Singleton's strongest film since his directorial debut. A dark and multi-character epic fueled by the presence of such talented actors as Ving Rhames, John Voight, and Don Cheadle, the film did not attempt to make a happy ending out of its harsh material, which may have accounted for its inability to win a large audience.
In 2000, Singleton returned with his biggest project to date, a glossy, expensive remake of Shaft, starring Samuel L. Jackson as its hero, the nephew of the original Shaft, Richard Roundtree (who had a cameo in the new film).
Singleton returned to South Central LA ten years after Boyz with 2001's Baby Boy, starring Tyrese Gibson and Omar Gooding. He followed that drama with a far different project in 2 Fast 2 Furious, starring Paul Walker and Tyrese, the film was released in 2003 and went on to become a worldwide box office blockbuster. His next project, the 2005 crime drama Four Brothers, starred Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin, and Garrett Hedlund.
In addition to his own directorial projects, Singleton has developed other projects through his production company, New Deal Entertainment. He served as executive producer on the Daisy V.S. Mayer-directed comedy Woo (1998), starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Tommy Davidson. New Deal's first independent producing effort, Hustle & Flow, written and directed by Craig Brewer, premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards. He maintained his working relationship with Brewer by producing his Hustle & Flow follow-up Black Snake Moan.
Singleton has also appeared in front of the camera, appearing briefly as a mailman in Boyz, a prison guard in Shaft, a bootleg video vendor in Baby Boy, a fireman in John Landis' Beverly Hills Cop III, and radio DJ "Detroit J" in Mario Van Peebles's Gettin' the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass (Baadasssss!).
Singleton received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on August 26, 2003.
