Tate Taylor is an American actor, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for directing The Help (2011) and Get On Up (2014).
Life and career
Taylor was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He is a close friend of writer Kathryn Stockett, whom he has known since they were in preschool together in Jackson.
Taylor worked for 15 years in New York and Los Angeles. Though Taylor debuted as a feature film director in Pretty Ugly People (2008), he was primarily an actor for most of his career, in films such as Winter's Bone (2010).
Taylor achieved mainstream success when he directed the film The Help (2011), based on Stockett's novel The Help. She gave him rights to make the film adaptation in June 2008, before the book was published. In addition to receiving generally positive reviews, the film was a major commercial success, earning more than $200 million worldwide, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Tate Taylor has been nominated for and received multiple industry awards, including the 2013 Vail Film Festival Vanguard Award, the 2012 BAFTA Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, the 2012 Writer's Guild of America Best Adapted Screenplay, the 2012 Critics Choice Award nomination, the 2012 Image Award nomination for Outstanding Directing and for Outstanding Writing, the 2011 Chicago Film Critics Association nomination, and many others.
He most recently directed Get On Up (2014), a biopic on the singer James Brown, starring Chadwick Boseman, which was released on August 1, 2014. Though the film was well received critically, it was a commercial disappointment.
As of 2011 he lives on Wyolah Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi.
Filmography
Director
- Chicken Party (short) (2003)
- Pretty Ugly People (2008)
- The Help (2011)
- Get on Up (2014)
Actor
- Wannabe (2005)
- Winter's Bone (2010)
References
External links
- Tate Taylor at the Internet Movie Database
