Amma Asante MBE
( 13 September 1969)
She is a British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress, and Chancellor at Norwich University of the Arts, who was born in London to parents from Ghana. Her love for the film industry started when she received her first role in BBC’s Grange Hill. Asante wrote and produced the 1998 BBC Two series Brothers and Sisters, starring David Oyelowo. She was a childhood friend of model Naomi Campbell, whom she met when they were seven years old.
Amma Asante was born in Lambeth, London, to Ghanaian parents: her mother was an entrepreneur who owned her own African cosmetics and grocery shop, and her accountant father received qualifications to work in the United Kingdom. Asante attended the Barbara Speake Stage School in Acton, where she trained in dance and drama. She appeared in the “Just Say No” anti-drugs campaign of the 1980s and was one of nine Grange Hill children to take it to the Reagan White House. She gained credits in other British television series, including Desmond’s (Channel 4) and Birds of a Feather (BBC 1), and was a Children’s Channel presenter for a year.
Asante was previously married to producer Charlie Hanson. She is now married to Søren Pedersen, the former spokesman for European police in The Hague.
Asante’s career started when she first attended a performing arts school that allowed her to draft her first sitcom script. Later, she became a child actress and made her first appearances on television in Grange Hill and Desmond’s. In her late teens, Asante left acting and worked in screenwriting with a development deal from Chrysalis. She founded a production company, Tantrum Films, where she wrote and produced two series of the BBC Two drama Brothers and Sisters (1998).
Asante is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.
Asante directed “Useful”, episode 3 in series 3 of the Hulu streaming service’s series The Handmaid’s Tale. The series is based on Canadian writer Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name. The episode was first screened on 5 June 2019. In the 2020 and 2021 Powerlist, Asante was listed in the Top 100 of the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent.
Asante is set to direct the Cold War thriller The Billion Dollar Spy starring Mads Mikkelsen
Awards
Asante was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to film.
In 2018, Asante became the first woman to receive the British Urban Film Festival honorary award from actress Dona Croll for her outstanding contribution to film and television.
Professional associations and interests
Asante is a past elected member of the BAFTA Council and a past BAFTA Film Committee member. In 2014 she was made an Honorary Associate of the London Film School,[40] where she earlier served as a Governor (2006–2007).
She traveled to Washington, DC, for an anti-drugs campaign, and then met with former First Lady Nancy Reagan