Page 58 - Powerlist 2020

Amma Asante MBE
Media, Publishing & Entertainment Writer, Director

BAFTA award-winner Amma has established herself as one
of Britain’s leading writers and directors. In 2017, Vanity Fair
named her as one of the top 10 Female Directors to Watch.
Her first film, 2004’s A Way of Life, about a single mother
fighting extreme poverty, won her a BAFTA and earned her
best newcomer nominations from the London Film Critics
Circle and Evening Standard Film Awards.
In 2014, her second film, Belle, which starred Gugu
Mbatha-Raw and Emily Watson, became one of the highest-
grossing independent films of the year.
Belle was a critical success and earned Amma many
award nominations. It was championed by Oprah Winfrey
who threw a garden party for Amma and the cast.
Her next film, A United Kingdom, saw her become the first
black woman to have a film open the prestigious BFI London
Film Festival, in 2017. It tells the true story of Seretse Khama
(David Oyelowo), the King of Botswana, who falls in love
with London office worker Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike).
In September 2018, the one-time Grange Hill actress
celebrated the release of her latest film, Where Hands Touch,
which is set in Germany during World War II. It tells the
Anne Mensah story of 15-year-old Lenya, the daughter of a white German
Vice-president Content UK, Netflix mother and a black father, living in fear due to the colour of
her skin, who falls in love with the son of an SS officer.
It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
A powerful woman in British TV, Anne played a crucial Next, Amma will direct The Billion Dollar Spy, about Adolf
role in shaping the agenda for TV dramas on Sky, where G Tolkachev, the chief designer at the USSR’s Research
she worked for more than six years, overseeing the Institute of Radio Engineering, who became the crown jewel
entertainment channels. of the CIA’s spy network.
She racked up a number of notable successes, including Amma was awarded an MBE in 2017.
Delicious with Dawn French and Emilia Fox which was
Sky 1’s most successful original series ever with an average
audience of 1.59 million viewers.
Other critically acclaimed shows include Stan Lee’s Lucky
Man and Guerrilla, written and directed by Academy Award
winner John Ridley and starring Idris Elba.
In 2019, Anne made a mega-move to Netflix. It will be
a challenging role, not least because of concern from UK
broadcasters about the growing power of the company.
She assured a House of Lords Communications Committee
hearing that Netflix was committed in the long-term to the
UK creative community.
Anne began her career in television in 1994, working at
Carlton Television as a graduate management trainee.
She later joined Noel Gay Television where she helped to
produce the award-winning documentary Windrush for
BBC2 before becoming Managing Director.
She then joined the BBC, where she was latterly Head of
Independent Drama, alongside her role as Head of Drama
for BBC Scotland. Her dual role required her to manage
and oversee all independent drama output across the BBC
channels, as well as all drama output from Scotland.
Anne sits on the board of the RTS and ScreenSkills, a
UK charity dedicated to training in TV and film. She is also
Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at the Royal
Central School of Speech and Drama.
Described by The Royal Television Society as “Drama’s
Unique Voice”, Anne says, “Never pass up an interesting
opportunity – you never know what adventure it will
take you on!”

58 Powerlist 2020