Jamal Joseph

Writer, director, and film professor Jamal Joseph was born on January 10, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York as Eddie Joseph. He was raised by Charles and Noonie Baltimore. Joseph joined the Black Panther Party after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. In 1969, at the age of sixteen, he became the youngest member of the Panther 21 criminal conspiracy case.

In 1981, Joseph was convicted on a federal charge of harboring fugitive ex-Panthers. He was sentenced to Fort Leavenworth prison where he continued organizing and enrolled in classes through a University of Kansas extension. While in prison, he earned his B.A. degrees in psychology and sociology, wrote five plays, two volumes of poetry and founded a prison theater company. After his release in 1987, he was hired by Touro College as a counselor, director of student activities, and professor. In 1997, Joseph co-founded and became executive artistic director of the IMPACT Repertory Theatre in Harlem, New York. In 1998, he began teaching screenwriting at Columbia University. Joseph went on to become the first black chair of the Graduate Film Program in the School of the Arts and was later appointed a professor of professional practice. He also served as executive director of New Heritage Films, a not-for-profit organization that provides training and opportunities for minority filmmakers.

Joseph has written and directed for Black Starz, HBO, Fox TV, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., and A&E. His produced screenplays include Ali: An American Hero (Fox), New York Undercover (Fox), Knights of the South Bronx (A&E), and The Many Trials of Tammy B. (Nickelodeon). He wrote and directed Drive By: A Love Story, Da Zone, and the docudrama Hughes Dreams Harlem for Starz. He has also published two books: Tupac Shakur Legacy (2006) and a memoir, Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention (2012).

Joseph has been featured in The New York Times, ABC’s Nightline, Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam, BET’s American Gangster, ESPN’s One Night in Vegas, and VH1’s Lord of the Revolution. He was named one of the top twelve African American educators in New York by the New York Daily News. His awards include a Cine Golden Eagle, a Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and an NAACP Leadership Award. In 2008, Joseph was nominated along with students from the IMPACT Repertory Theatre for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.

Jamal Joseph was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 29, 2014.