F. Gary Gray

Felix Gary Gray (born July 17, 1969)[1] is an American film director, film producer, music video director, and actor.

F. Gary Gray
Gray at San Diego Comic-Con in 2015
Born
Felix Gary Gray

(1969-07-17) July 17, 1969
New York City, New York, U.S.
Other namesGary Gray
OccupationFilm director, film producer, music video director, actor
Years active1989–present

Gray began his career as a director on numerous critically acclaimed and award-winning music videos, including "It Was a Good Day" by Ice Cube, "Natural Born Killaz" by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" by Dr. Dre, "Waterfalls" by TLC, and "Ms. Jackson" by Outkast.

Gray made his feature film directorial debut with the comedy Friday (1995). He has since directed the films Set It Off (1996), The Negotiator (1998), The Italian Job (2003), Be Cool (2005), Law Abiding Citizen (2009), and Straight Outta Compton (2015). He also directed the eighth installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, The Fate of the Furious (2017), which is the 18th-highest-grossing film of all time.[2]

Life and career

Gray was born in New York City and raised primarily in South Los Angeles.[3] He began his career in 1989 when he appeared uncredited in the satire comedy film Major League. Three years later, he directed the music video for Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day". The video is a literal adaptation of the lyrics. He would go on to direct subsequent videos for Ice Cube, as well as artists such as Cypress Hill, Outkast, Dr. Dre, and Queen Latifah.

At age 26,[3] Gray directed his first film, the urban comedy Friday with rapper-producer Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. Next, he directed the film Set It Off, with Jada Pinkett and Queen Latifah. He then directed The Negotiator, which starred Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson, and earned Gray both Best Film and Best Director awards at the 1998 Acapulco Film Festival.

Gray also directed The Italian Job, an action-thriller starring Charlize Theron and Mark Wahlberg. Gray garnered the Best Director award at the 2004 Black American Film Festival for his work on the film, which surpassed the $100 million mark in the domestic box office.

His next film was A Man Apart, an action thriller starring Vin Diesel. He would later direct Be Cool, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name. The John Travolta vehicle was panned by critics but went on to gross over $95 million worldwide.[4]

His next film was the thriller Law Abiding Citizen, starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler and written by Kurt Wimmer. The film grossed over $100 million worldwide.

Gray received The Ivan Dixon Award of Achievement from the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center and was named one of the “50 Best and Brightest African Americans Under 40” by Black Enterprise magazine. He was honored by the African American Film Critics Association with their 2004 Special Achievement Award and was recognized by the Artist Empowerment Coalition with the Artist Empowerment Award that same year. He also received the Pioneer Director award from the Pan-African Film and Arts Festival in 2010.

Gray also directed the 2015 drama Straight Outta Compton, a biographical film about the rap group N.W.A. In 2017, Gray directed The Fate of the Furious, the eighth film in the Fast & Furious franchise, which was released on April 14, 2017.[5] Upon release, both films set the record for best opening by a film with a black director[6] and The Fate of the Furious became the first film directed by an African-American to gross over $1 billion worldwide.[7][8] In April 2019, it was revealed that Gray would direct an adaptation of the video game franchise Saints Row, with a screenplay written by Greg Russo.[9]

During the 2016 Oscar nominations that sparked the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag due to lack of diversity, F. Gary Gray was noted by many sources to have missed out on a nomination for Best Director for his work on Straight Outta Compton.

Filmography

Feature films
Year Film Director Producer
1995 Friday Yes No
1996 Set It Off Yes No
1998 The Negotiator Yes No
2003 The Italian Job Yes No
A Man Apart Yes No
2005 Be Cool Yes Yes
2009 Law Abiding Citizen Yes No
2015 The Sea of Trees No Yes
Straight Outta Compton Yes Yes
2017 The Fate of the Furious Yes No
2019 Men in Black: International Yes No

Cameo roles

Year Film Role
1995 Friday Black Man at Store
1996 Set It Off Gangster Driving Lowrider
2009 Law Abiding Citizen Detective with Evidence Bag
2015 Straight Outta Compton Greg Mack

Television director
YearTitleNotes
1999 Ryan Caulfield: Year One Episode "Pilot"
2006 Enemies Episode "Pilot"

Music videos
Year Title Artist
1992 "It Was a Good Day" Ice Cube
1993 "Call Me a Mack" Usher
"I Ain't Goin' Out Like That" Cypress Hill
"When the Ship Goes Down"
"Truthful" Heavy D
"Fantastic Voyage" Coolio
1994 "Natural Born Killaz" Dr. Dre
Ice Cube
"Saturday Nite Live" Masta Ace Incorporated
"Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik" OutKast
"Black Hand Side" Queen Latifah
1995 "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" Dr. Dre
"Pretty Girl" Jon B.[10]
"Come On" Barry White
"I Believe in You and Me" Whitney Houston
"Waterfalls" TLC
"Diggin' on You"
1996 "How Come, How Long" Babyface
1999 "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" R. Kelly
2000 "Ms. Jackson" OutKast
2004 "Bang Bang Boom" Drag-On
2006 "Show Me What You Got" Jay-Z
2010 "Super High" Rick Ross
gollark: ```Have: Dragon CaveWant: CB Gold```
gollark: One of these days probably nobody will buy DC.
gollark: Managed to trade for four new reds, yay!
gollark: Wouldn't the real problem be updating them all?
gollark: It's clear that the solution is a generalized programming language for describing group relations and automatically putting things into groups.Seriously, though, how would nested groups help?

References
  1. "F. Gary Gray Biography (1969?-)". FilmReference.com. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  2. D'Alessandro, Anthony (April 17, 2017). "'Fate Of The Furious' To Clock $100M+ Stateside, As Pic Zooms To All-Time $529M+ Global Debut – Sunday AM Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  3. Barker, Andrew (April 5, 2017). "On Eve of 'Fate of the Furious,' F. Gary Gray Celebrates 25 Years of Filmmaking". Variety. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  4. "Be Cool (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2017-08-06.
  5. "The Fate of the Furious (2017) - Box Office Mojo".
  6. Anthony D'Alessandro. "'Fate Of The Furious' To Clock $100M+ Stateside, As Pic Zooms To All-Time $529M+ Global Debut – Sunday AM Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 16, 2017.
  7. "Box-Office Milestone: 'Fate of the Furious' Crosses $1B Globally". The Hollywood Reporter. 2017-04-30. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  8. Harris, Dana; Brueggemann, Tom (2017-04-04). "'The Fate of the Furious': F. Gary Gray is the First African American To Direct a Billion-Dollar Movie". Indiewire.com. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  9. Jr, Mike Fleming; Jr, Mike Fleming (2019-04-30). "F. Gary Gray Developing To Direct Movie Based On Video Game Franchise 'Saints Row' For Fenix, Koch, Occupant". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
  10. ""Pretty Girl" by Jon B." VH1 (Viacom International). September 1, 2004. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
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