Jamal Joseph

Jamal Joseph is a U.S. writer, director, producer, poet, activist, and educator. One of the Panther 21, while incarcerated for his active participation in the Black Panther Party, Joseph earned two college degrees and wrote five plays and two volumes of poetry.  He is a full professor and former chair of Columbia University’s Graduate Film Division and the artistic director of the New Heritage Theater in Harlem. He is also the founder and artistic director of IMPACT, a Harlem-based youth theatre company, and executive director of New Heritage Films, a not-for-profit organization that provides training and opportunities for minority filmmakers.  He has been featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, BET’s American Gangster and on Tupac Shakur’s “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” Volumes 1 & 2. He is the author of the interactive biography on Tupac Shakur, Tupac Shakur Legacy.

Joseph was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award in the Best Song category for his contributions to the song “Raise It Up”, performed by IMPACT Repertory Theatre and Jamia Nash in the 2007 film August Rush.  Jamal Joseph has written and directed for Black Starz, HBO, Fox TV, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., and A&E. His produced screenplays include Ali: An American Hero (Fox), New York Undercover (Fox), Knights of the South Bronx (A&E), and The Many Trials of Tammy B. (Nickelodeon). He wrote and directed Drive By: A Love Story, Da Zone, and the docudrama Hughes Dreams Harlem for  Starz.  Joseph is currently co-executive producing and writing a dramatic musical for BET.  He is adapting his memoir Panther Baby (Algonquin Books) into a feature screenplay which he will direct.