The Hollywood Reporter, one of the leading publications in Hollywood just released it’s annual power list aka The Hollywood Reporter 100: The Most Powerful People in Entertainment 2018. And The Culture is represented strong here with 16 black creators making the list and many of those 16 making our personal New Black Hollywood A-List. So we’ve skipped all the filler and gone straight to the good stuff so check ut where your favorite creators for The Culture landed.

98. Michael B. Jordan

Jordan has had a steady rise up the ladder of success in Hollywood and 2018 has been his breakout year. Jordan starred as the villain Killmonger in Black Panther. A powerful, commanding, pro black villain stealing the show in a billion-dollar blockbuster. Jordan received unanimous praise and a likely Oscar nomination. He has also starred in and co-produced the HBO adaptation of the classic book Fahrenheit 451 and returns to the Creed franchise in the potential blockbuster Creed II which is expected a be a major hit.

88. Ava DuVernay

A writer and director with a natural gift for storytelling. She is also the first black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award receiving the nomination for her film Selma about Martin Luther King. In 2018, in yet another first, became the first black woman to direct a movie with a $100 million budget with Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time. She is currently shooting the Netflix series Central Park Five and is signed on to direct her first superhero film, DC’s The New Gods. Her TV show Queen Sugar is still going strong on OWN and she even directed Jay-Z’s “Family Feud” video.

 

85. Will Paker

Black super producer Maker is on a roll. First Girls Trip and now the Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish comedy Night School. Next will be What Men Want starring Taraji P. Henson. He also has a deal with Oprah’s OWN two series Ambitions and Ready to Love on the way and yet another show coming to BET, Peachtree Place.

83. Ryan Coogler

The new “It” film director and screenwriter. His first feature film, Fruitvale Station, starring Michael B. Jordan about the murder of Oscar Grant was a critical and commercial success. He then co-wrote and directed the seventh film in the Rockyseries, Creed(again starring Jordan), which rejuvenated a lagging franchise and again was a commercial and critical success. And now he’s taken it to the next level with Black Panther,which has been a record-shattering success. It is the highest domestic opening for a film directed by an African-American, the third biggest opening of all-time, made over $1 billion worldwide just to name a few of it’s accolades. Now Coogler is executive producing Creed II, the just announcedLeBron James’ Space Jam sequel and of course the eventual Black Panther sequel.

81. Kenya Barris

Creator of Black-ish and Grown-ish which have both had great 2018’s Barris was already set as a power player but then negotiated his way into a giant, high-eight-figure deal with Netflix. On the movie side, he’s parlayed his success co-writing Girls Trip and Barbershop into a 6 upcoming projects, including Shaft, White Men Can’t Jump and Coming 2 America reboots.

79. Tiffany Haddish

At this moment in time, Tiffany Haddish is the queen of comedy in Hollywood. No woman of any color is hotter or in more demand. Haddish is currently co-starring opposite Tracy Morgan in the TBS sitcom, The Last O.G., her first lead in a sitcom. She starred in the just released comedy film Night School alongside Kevin Heart. She is also set to lead in the comedy Limited Partners and recently signed a first-look deal with HBO. In addition, Haddish will voice one of the main characters for the Netflix animated comedy Tuca & Bertie. Oh and she dropped a New York Times best-selling book The Last Black Unicorn. Told you she was hot.

75. Lebron James

Lebron James is a man on a mission.That mission, take his production company SpringHill Entertainment to the next level and become one of the top creators for The Culture in Hollywood. And he has a number of projects in the works, a documentary Shut Up And Dribble about the changing roles of athletes in our current political and social times which is set to air on Showtime in October, a docu-series Warriors of Liberty City following a youth football team in one of the roughest parts of Miami. At NBC he has an hour-long drama titled Hoops which centers around a former WNBA plater and coach who gets the opportunity to become the first female head coach of a men’s college basketball team and Brotherly Love, a comedy based on the life of 2018 NBA Rookie Of The Year Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers. Over at the CW, James has another drama based on the classic film for The Culture Lean On Me this time with a female lead. James’ Netflix collab is a limited series about the life of Madam CJ Walker starring Oscar-nominee Octavia Spencer who will also be co-producing with Lebron.

69. Kevin Hart

Hart dropped two major comedies this year, Night school with Tiffany Haddish and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with Dwayne Johnson which made a staggering $962. Coming next are the sequels. He’s about to start shooting for Jumanji 2 and he’ll be doing more voice work for the second Secret Lives of Pets. And right now he’s on the road with his Irresponsible comedy tour selling out arenas and keeping his core fanbase engaged and laughing and making a pretty penny doing it.

62. Channing Dungey

Dungey is the TV head at ABC and therefore is responsible for green lighting hits like the Roseanne revival, which became the No. 1 series and, The Good Doctor, and of course the great shows from Kenya Barris and Shonda Rhimes. She also gets major props for canceling Roseanne after her racist tweets despite the show being a major success choosing morals over profits and standing up for The Culture.

 

57. Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry has a legendary work ethic. He’s produced 90 episodes for his various TV projects on OWN alone this year. And now he’s inked a five-year deal that encompasses film, TV and shortform video with Viacom and he already has his first project in the deal lined up for BET so Perry will continue to flood the market with his creations.

55. Jordan Peele

His directorial debut Get Out became a cultural phenomenon and huge and lead to Peele taking home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (the first African-American to do so). He is also one of TIME magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People”. And after the success of Get Out, Peele announced that he had up to four other films that would be horror features that, like his first film (which dealt with racism) would address social issues through a genre framework. And the Get Out producers immediately announced they would make all of those films with Peele.

 

54. Denzel Washington

Legend of The Culture Denzel Washington had another great year in Hollywood. His action sequel Equalizer 2 made $180 million and he scored an Oscar nom for Roman J. Israel, Esq., this year. And he returns to the director’s chair with Journal for Jordan, a drama about an American serving in Baghdad who writes a notebook of life lessons for his young son, just before he’s killed in action which is getting early 2019 Oscar buzz.

42. Donald Glover

Now he stars in the FX series Atlanta, which he created and occasionally directs. For his work on Atlanta, Glover has won various awards, including an Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, and Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Television Series – Musical or Comedy. He’s only the second African-American performer to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.In film, he’s part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe appearing in Spiderman: Homecoming, is a member of the Star Wars universe (playing the young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story) and he’ll also provide the voice of Simba in a remake of the Disney film The Lion King.

 

38. Dwayne Johnson

His two film releases this year (Skyscraper and Rampage) grossed a very impressive $739 million combined. And he is showing no signs of slowing down with 23 projects in the pipeline including San Andreas 2 and Jumanji 2, an NBC reality competition Titan Games, and his HBO hit Ballers still rolling along, he is painting his reputation as one of the hardest working people and Hollywood and remains one of Hollywood’s highest-paid, earning a reported $124 million in 2018.

 

30. Shonda Rhimes

This year Shonda Rhimes changed the creator money game. After exiting her longtime home at ABC for Netflix’s first nine-figure (yes 9 figures) overall deal, prompting showrunners/creators of every color across the industry to reevaluate their worth. Rhimes is already readying eight series under the new deal and continues to executive produce her ABC series including megahits Grey’s Anatomy and How To Get Away With Murder.

 

18. Oprah Winfery

For years now Oprah has been a media queen and Oprah has been so popping that this year #Oprah2020 was already trending. Although she won’t (likely) run for President she continues to expand her media empire. Her network OWN continues to grow plus she signed a multiyear/multi-million dollar content deal with Apple and she recently got her own exhibit at The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History.

 

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Written by @TalentedMrFord

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