Nikyatu Jusu

Nikyatu Jusu is an American independent writer, director, producer, editor and assistant professor in film and video at George Mason University. Jusu's works center on the complexities of Black female characters and in particular, displaced, immigrant women in the United States. Her work includes African Booty Scratcher, Flowers (2015), Suicide By Sunlight (2019), and Nanny, which received the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Early life and education Jusu was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Sierra Leonean parents Hannah Khoury and Ronald Jusu. She attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina with the intention to become a biomedical engineer. An unexpected meeting with a screenwriting professor introduced her to the world of filmmaking and she changed her focus. Jusu graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Film/Cinema/Video Studies in 2005. She later studied narrative filmmaking at New York University's Tisch graduate film school and received a Master of Fine Arts in Film/Cinema/Video Studies in 2011.

Career 2008 – 2018: Career beginnings In 2008, Jusu wrote and directed African Booty Scratcher for her second-year graduate film project at NYU Tisch. It is a semi-autobiographical film that tells the story of Isatu, a young Sierra Leonean American. African Booty Scratcher was eventually acquired by HBO.

Jusu released Say Grace Before Drowning in 2010, again as writer and director.

Jusu began developing a feature film, FREE THE TOWN in 2013. The film follows three people in Freetown, Sierra Leone and was selected for inclusion in Sundance Institute's inaugural Diverse Writers Workshop.

She co-wrote and co-directed Flowers in 2015 with Yvonne Michelle Shirley, a classmate from film school. Flowers was shown at film festivals such as BlackStar Film Festival. It was acquired by HBO and received the HBO Short Film Award.

2017 – present: Suicide by Sunlight and Nanny In 2017, Jusu joined the faculty of George Mason University as an assistant professor in the film and video studies department. That year she was selected as a recipient of Tribeca Film Institute and Chanel's Through Her Lens program to develop the short film Suicide by Sunlight, co-written with R. Shanea Williams. Suicide by Sunlight centers a Black vampire protected from the sun because of her melanin. The film was executive produced by Terence Nance, directed by Jusu, and stars Natalie Paul. It debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2019.

On April 13, 2021, it was announced that Jusu's debut feature film, Nanny, was being produced by Stay Gold Features and Topic Studios. The horror film follows a west African undocumented nanny taking care of a privileged child on the Upper West Side and preparing for the arrival of her son. Shortly after Nanny won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, Blumhouse Productions and Amazon Studios acquired the film and released it theatrically on November 23, 2022 and then streaming on Amazon Prime Video on December 16, 2022. In February 2022, it was announced that Jusu's next horror film project was acquired by Monkeypaw Productions and Universal Pictures. In November 2022, Jusu revealed that her untitled horror film with Monkeypaw would be a feature length adaptation of her short film Suicide by Sunlight.

Accolades

The Most Promising Filmmaker Award from Duke University. Shadow and Act Filmmaker Challenge winner forBlack Swan Theory. Flowers: HBO short film award. Her screenplay Free The Town was selected for Africa's most prestigious Film Market, the 2013 Durban Film Mart, and one of 5 narrative films selected for Film Independent's Fast Track. It was one of 12 projects invited to participate in Sundance Institute's inaugural Diverse Writers Workshop. Free the Town was never shot because of the Ebola outbreak. Her narrative film Suicide by Sunlight was awarded a Rooftop Films/Adrienne Shelly Foundation Short Film Grant and was funded by the production grant Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women's Filmmaker Program sponsored by the Tribeca Film Institute and Chanel. The film was one of the 5 to be nominated, and won the grand prize.

Filmography

Short film Year Title Director Writer Editor 2007 African Booty Scratcher 2010 Train Say Grace Before Drowning 2011 Black Swan Theory 2015 Flowers 2019 Suicide by Sunlight

Feature film Year Title Director Writer Producer 2022 Nanny

Television Year Title Notes 2019 Two Sentence Horror Stories Episode: "Only Child"

Awards and nominations