Melina Matsoukas (born January 14, 1981) is an American music video, film, commercial and television director. She is a two-timeGrammy Award winner and four-timeMTV Video Music Awards winner for her "We Found Love" and "Formation" music videos.^[1] She was honored with the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal by theAmerican Film Institute in 2019. Her directorial debut in film wasQueen & Slim, starringJodie Turner-Smith andDaniel Kaluuya, and written byLena Waithe. She then worked as executive producer and director for television seriesInsecure, being nominated for thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2020.^[2]

Matsoukas was born in New York City and grew up in theCo-op City housing development in the Bronx.^[3] Her father worked as a builder,^[4] and her mother taught math in a local high school. When Matsoukas was eight, the family moved toHackensack, New Jersey, where she attendedHackensack High School.^[5] Her father is of mixedGreek andJewish descent, and her mother is ofAfro-Cuban andAfro-Jamaican descent.^[6][7]

Matsoukas earned her degree atNew York University'sTisch School of the Arts and completed her graduate work at theAFI Conservatory with an MFA incinematography. Her graduate thesis was on music videos.^[8]

Matsoukas started out at Black Dog Film, then the now-defunct Gorilla Flix film production company, and is currently a director at Prettybird, which she has been signed to since 2011.^[9]

Matsoukas' first film was about how women are viewed in the New York meatpacking industry, though she immediately destroyed it upon completion, describing it as "a really bad film" that "made her fall in love with the medium".^[10] In 2006, Matsoukas directed her first music video upon completing grad school in 2006 for Red Handed's "Dem Girls" featuring Scooby andPaul Wall.^[10] She would later direct videos for artists such asJennifer Lopez,Ludacris,Lady Gaga,Katy Perry,Rihanna,Solange, and eventually her most frequent collaborator, Beyonce.^[10] In 2016, Matsoukas contributed to Beyonce's visual albumLemonade with a music video for the album's lead single "Formation ".^[10] "Formation" went on to be critically acclaimed, winning Matsoukas numerous accolades such as a Grand Prix for Excellence in Music Video at the 2016Cannes Lion Awards as well as theMTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.^[10]

In her music video filmography, Matsoukas would utilize many of the tropes seen in other music videos at the time, but would find ways to "always articulates her aesthetic: brightly saturated color, vivid imagery, the artist at the center of the frame always establishing a video's center of gravity".^[10] Her work is described as "chock full of bright colors or crisp black and white images, smooth spotlights, and tasteful retro video models."^[11] Matsoukas says that expensive equipment is not necessary for a quality video and one should never think that way: "A good video has the right visuals, a wellconceptualised story and should be exciting and elicit reaction."^[12] In an interview forVenus Zine's Fall 2010 issue, she explains about being part of the music video world, "I love it. The quick turnaround, the creativity."^[13]

Between 2016 and 2017, Matsoukas became the executive producer and director of several episodes of the critically and publicly acclaimed television seriesMaster of None andInsecure including the acclaimed episode fromMaster of None "Thanksgiving", which would go on to win severalEmmy Awards, though Matsoukas herself would not be nominated for any awards for her work on the program.^[14] She was later nominated forOutstanding Comedy Series at the72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.^[2] Matsoukas also was nominated for twoNAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series and theDirectors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series.

Matsoukas made her directorial debut in film withQueen & Slim, starringJodie Turner-Smith andDaniel Kaluuya, and written byLena Waithe. It was released on November 27, 2019, byUniversal Pictures.^[15] Though Matsoukas avoids making professional decisions based on personal relationships, she was intrigued by the opportunity to direct the script written by her past collaborator and good friend, Lena Waithe, later stating that she "was looking for something [she] felt was political in a way that had something to say, that was strong and unique and powerful."^[10]Queen & Slim was well received critically and financially, and grossed $47.9 million worldwide. Matsoukas won aBlack Reel Awards, aBET Award, aNational Board of Review Awards and was nominated for theDirectors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directing - First Time Feature Film.

In 2019, Matsoukas was honored with the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal by theAmerican Film Institute, and was named to theEbony Power 100 List in 2020.^[16] In 2020 she directed the commercial spotBeats by Dre: You Love Me, being recognized with theDirectors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials.

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(August 2008)

• Melina Matsoukas at Prettybird
• Melina Matsoukas atIMDb
• Melina MatsoukasArchived February 6, 2009, at theWayback Machine atMusic Video Database
• Melina Matsoukas atClipland
• Melina Matsoukas onTwitter

• 1981 births
• AFI Conservatory alumni
• American music video directors
• American women film directors
• American people of Cuban descent
• American people of Greek descent
• American people of Jamaican descent
• American people of Jewish descent
• Female music video directors
• African-American film directors
• African-American Jews
• Directors Guild of America Award winners
• Grammy Award winners
• Hackensack High School alumni
• Living people
• People from Hackensack, New Jersey
• Tisch School of the Arts alumni

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