Antoine Fuqua Biography

Date of Birth: May 30, 1965

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fuqua attended West Virginia University, where he played college basketball while studying electrical engineering. In 1987, he moved to New York to pursue a career in film, starting out as a production assistant.

Soon he was working as an associate producer and first assistant director for a commercial and music video firm. After forming his own production company, Reel Power, Fuqua directed his first short film entitled Exit. His film and his first music video were well received and he was soon signed as a director with Propaganda Films.

Fuqua honed his directing skills directing videos for the music group Arrested Development, as well as Prince, Zhane, Chanté Moore, Toni Braxton, and Shanice Wilson. In 1994 he was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video. In 1996 he won the Best Rap Video Award for his work on Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise." Fuqua also won the Sinclair Tennenbaum Olesiuk and Emanual Award for his direction of the movie trailer for Dangerous Minds.

When he decided to take on directing a feature film, critics doubted his ability. Fuqua chose to direct the fast-action cop film The Replacement Killers, with Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat. Audiences were pleased with the result ­ it opened at the number two spot at the box office, behind the mega-hit, Titanic. Fuqua went on to win a Black Reel Award as Best Director for Training Day (2001), starring Denzel Washington, who won an Oscar for his role. Tears of the Sun (2003) starred Bruce Willis, but it failed to make much of a splash at the box office. Next Fuqua took on the action adventure King Arthur(2004), starring a host of British stars such as Clive Owens, Keira Knightley and Hugh Dancy.

Fuqua has continued working steadily in recent years, with hits like the action thrillersOlympus Has Fallen (2013) and The Equalizer (2013), the sports drama Southpaw (2015), and the Western remake The Magnificent Seven (2016).

Fuqua and his wife, actress Lela Rochon, have three children together.

Filmography:

The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Southpaw (2015)
The Equalizer (2013)
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Brooklyn's Finest (2009)
By Any Means Necessary (2009)
Under and Alone (2008)
Shooter (2007)
The Call (2006)
King Arthur (2004)
Lightning in a Bottle (2004)
Tears of the Sun (2003)
Training Day (2001)
Bait (2000)
The Replacement Killers (1998)