Dustin Lance Black
Dustin Lance Black was born in Sacramento, California, United States on June 10th, 1974 and is the Screenwriter. At the age of 49, Dustin Lance Black biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 49 years old, Dustin Lance Black has this physical status:
Dustin Lance Black (born June 10, 1974) is an American screenwriter, producer, film, and television presenter, as well as a LGBT rights activist.
For the 2008 film Milk, he received a Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award. Black is a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights and author of 8. Eighteen months later, a staged reenactment of the federal trial that resulted in the reversal of California's Protest 8's overturned by a federal court.
Early life
When he was young, black's father Raul Garrison walked out on his polio-stricken mother, Roseanna, and his two brothers, Marcus Raul and Todd Bryant. They grew up in a Mormon family, first in San Antonio, Texas, before heading to Salinas, California.
Black grew up in a Mormon culture and military bases, and he was concerned about his sexuality. When he discovered himself attracted to a child in his neighborhood at the age of six or seven, he told himself, "I'm going to hell." And if I ever admit it, I'll be ill, and I'll be arrested. His "acute knowledge" of his sexuality made him moody, shy, and at times suicidal, according to him. He dropped out in his senior year of college.
Black began to work in theater at The Western Stage in Salinas and later worked on Broadway's Bare at the Hudson Main Stage Theater in Hollywood. Although apprenticing with stage designers, doing film editing, and working on theater lighting crews, Black spent time at University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film, and Television (UCLA). In 1996, he graduated with distinction.
Personal life
In The Advocate's "Forty under 40" issue of June/July 2009, Black was the top of a list of openly gay individuals. He was featured on the front page of the journal. He was one of the Official Grand Marshals of the 2009 NYC LGBT Pride March, which was produced by Heritage of Pride, which included Anne Kronenberg and Cleve Jones.
Marcus, Black's brother, died of cancer on January 24, 2012.
In spring 2013, Black and British Olympic champion Tom Daley began a relationship; they live in Southwark, London. In October 2015, it was revealed that they had become engaged, and that they married at Bovey Castle in Devon in May 2017.
Black and Daley announced on February 14, 2018 that they were expecting their first child, but then revealed the birth of a son in June. Black and Daley, facing criticism for their choice of surrogacy, launched a podcast in which they addressed the ethical questions surrounding surrogacy and the entire experience. Black and Daley are unable to post photos of their son's face on Facebook or in social media pages due to privacy issues. "That could change in the future," Daley said, "for the first year, we wanted to enjoy the first year with him."
Black was one of eight potential commencement speakers invited by Pasadena City College in 2014, and he accepted. The college announced Black had not been invited to the university and that the unofficial invitation was "an honest mistake," after school officials learned nude photos of Black were leaked online five years earlier. The college board of trustees apologised and officially welcomed him following discussions between Black's and PCC's attorneys.
Career
Black wrote and directed The Journey of Jared Price, a gay romance film, and Something Close to Heaven, a gay coming-of-age short film. In 2001, he produced and appeared in On the Bus, a Nevada road trip and adventure with six gay men. He was hired as the only Mormon writer on HBO's Big Love, which is about a polygamous family. He appeared on season one as a staff writer and executive story editor, and was promoted to co-producer for season three.
Black first visited San Francisco in the early 1990s, when AIDS devastated the city's gay population. "Hearing about Harvey was about the only hopeful tale at the time," Black said. When he first saw Rob Epstein's documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, he wondered, "I just want to do something with this, why hasn't someone done something with this?" Black worked with Milk's former aides Cleve Jones and Anne Kronenberg, as well as former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, in a three-year study on Milk's life, beginning to produce a three-year screenplay based on Milk's life. The screenplay was written on specification, but Black handed over the script to Jones, who then handed it over to Gus Van Sant, who then went on to direct the film. Dan Jinks, a long-time Milk producer, who waited for Black to congratulate him but discovered that the project did not have a named producer.
At the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, Black's film Pedro, based on AIDS activist and reality television actress Pedro Zamora, premiered.
The 81st Academy Awards were given to Black for Best Original Screenplay for Milk on February 22, 2009. He wore a White Knot to the service as a sign of unity with the marriage equality movement.
On October 11, 2009, Black marched in the National Equality March and delivered a speech in front of the United States Capitol to an estimated crowd of 200,000 LGBT activists.
In 2010, Black wrote his own script Virginia, starring Jennifer Connelly.
In 2010, Black narrated 8: The Mormon Proposition, a documentary about the involvement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in California's Proposition 8. Black received the award for best documentary for 8 hours at the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco and spoke out against LDS Church sex discrimination and the church's unity.
J. Edgar was directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
In 2011, Black wrote the play 8, which focuses on the true events of the Hollingsworth v. Perry trial and the witness testimony that led to the Prosecutors' decision to reverse California's Prohibition 8. He formulated the play in reaction to the federal court's refusal to allow the release of video recordings from the trial and to provide the public a realistic representation of what transpired in the courtroom. It is written and performed with original transcripts from the trial and journalist archives, as well as first-hand interviews of the individuals concerned. On September 19, 2011, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City opened on September 19, 2011 and later broadcast on YouTube from the Ebell of Los Angeles Theatre on March 3, 2012.
The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, the eight founding sponsors, have been licensed to perform on college campuses and in community theaters free of charge.
Black appears in the documentary film Hollywood to Dollywood (originally released in 2011).
In 2019, Black published Mama's Boy: A Novel About Our Americas.
A Life Like Mine was scheduled to be directed by Paris Barclay.
Gus Van Sant was supposed to film a film version of Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from 2007 to 2011 for a time working with Black.
Other awards
- Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of The Year 2009
- UCLA's Distinguished Achievement in Screenwriting award, "UCLA Festival 2009: New Creative Work," School of Theater, Film and Television, June 10, 2009, Freud Playhouse
- Distinguished Service to the LGBT Community by a UCLA Alumnus Award, 2009 UCLA LGBT Graduation Ceremony, June 13, 2009
- Bonham Centre Award, for contribution to awareness and education around issues of sexual diversity, Media.utoronto.ca, The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto, September 27, 2011
- Human Rights Campaign, Visibility Award September 15, 2012
- Equality Arizona, The Barry Goldwater Human Rights Individual Award Sept. 2013
- Writers Guild of America West, 2018 Valentine Davies Award for Civil and Human Rights Efforts, February 11, 2018