Cord Jefferson

Cord Jefferson challenged Hollywood executives to take more chances on Black directors in his 2024 Oscar speech after winning Best Adapted Screenplay, one of five Academy Award nominations for “American Fiction.” The first-time director, who has written for numerous TV shows including “Survivor’s Remorse,” “The Good Place” and “Watchmen,” endured his own share of rejection. In 2020, for example, Apple pulled his first TV series in late stages of development. That moment led Jefferson to pick up "Erasure" by Percival Everett, a novel on race and pop culture. Three years later, he adapted "Erasure" into “American Fiction,” his critically acclaimed film about a suburban writer named Monk Ellison whose well-respected novels barely sell any copies until he uses a pseudonym to write parodies of ghetto fiction. “American Fiction” made $22 million at the box office on a budget “significantly less than $10 million.”