Nia DaCosta: Movies & Box Office

Born on November 8, 1989 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, Nia DaCosta grew up in Harlem under the artistic influence of her Jamaican mother, Charmaine DaCosta, a founding vocalist of the reggae group Worl‑A‑Girl. From an early desire to be a poet, a high‑school AP English class introduced her to Joseph Conrad, and a later viewing of Apocalypse Now ignited a lifelong obsession with cinema. She studied the New Hollywood era, admiring directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, eventually enrolling at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she earned a BFA in 2011 and even met Scorsese while working as a television production assistant. DaCosta later pursued an MA at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, cementing her trans‑atlantic training. After assisting acclaimed filmmakers like Steve McQueen and Steven Soderbergh, DaCosta wrote and produced short works before her breakthrough feature Little Woods (2018), a crime‑thriller that premiered at Tribeca, won the Nora Ephron Prize and secured distribution with Neon. The film’s gritty storytelling, inspired by Winter’s Bone and Frozen River, established her reputation for portraying active women in harsh environments. She next directed two episodes of the British series Top Boy and co‑created the web series Ghost Tape (2020) before being tapped by Jordan Peele to helm the spiritual sequel Candyman (2021), making history as the first Black female director to open at #1 at the U.S. box office. In 2023 she broke another barrier by directing the Marvel Studios entry The Marvels, becoming the first Black woman to direct a Marvel film and, despite its commercial challenges, achieving the highest worldwide gross for a film directed by a Black woman. Upcoming projects include a cinematic adaptation of Hedda Gabler starring Tessa Thompson (set for 2025) and the horror sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026). Her accolades include multiple festival awards, NAACP Image Award nominations, and a Progressive Lifetime Achievement Award at the 20th Rome Film Festival in 2025.