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Amma Asante

(1969-), Writer and film director

Sitter in 3 portraits
British-born to Ghanaian parents, Amma Asante originally trained in dance and drama at the Barbara Speake Stage School in London and appeared in the television school drama Grange Hill. She later founded her own production company Tantrum Films. She made her directional debut with A Way of Life (2004), winning a number of prestigious awards including BAFTA's Carl Foreman Award. Her second feature, Belle (2013), inspired by the eighteenth-century portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray, received much critical acclaim. This was followed in 2016 with A United Kingdom, the first film by a black director to open the BFI London Film Festival, and Where Hands Touch (2018). In 2017, Asante was appointed MBE for services to film.

Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below

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"01:40:25" (Amma Asante)

by Nina Mae Fowler
compressed charcoal and pencil on paper, 2019
NPG 7069

Amma Asante, by Bryan Adams - NPG x131966

Amma Asante

by Bryan Adams
C-type colour print, 19 February 2008
NPG x131966

Amma Asante, by Richard Saker - NPG x139789

Amma Asante

by Richard Saker
C-type colour print, 27 March 2014
NPG x139789

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