Nia DaCosta
Birthdate – November 8, 1989 (34 Years Old)
Birthplace – Brooklyn, New York, NY
Nia DaCosta has had a remarkable trajectory as a filmmaker, from her initial status as a lauded indie New York writer-director to becoming the youngest person to ever direct a Marvel movie, all in the span of five years. Between 2009 and 2014, DaCosta was either a writer-director, director-producer, or writer of only four short student films.
Upon graduating from NYU’s Tisch School, DaCosta was a TV production assistant, leading her to work with filmmakers Steve McQueen, Martin Scorsese (her idol), and Steven Soderbergh. DaCosta’s script for her first feature film, Little Woods (2018), was selected as a project for Sundance’s 2015 Screenwriters and Directors Labs. DaCosta expanded the project from a short to a feature, starring Tessa Thompson, Lily James, Luke Kirby, James Badge Dale, and Lance Reddick and funded via Kickstarter; after a Tribeca festival premiere, the film was released by NEON.
Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions recruited Nia DaCosta to direct and co-write (with Peele and Win Rosenfeld) her first studio-produced (Universal) film, the sequel and fourth movie in the series, Candyman (2021), starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, and Tony Todd, and earning a solid $77.4 million globally.
Even before Candyman opened, DaCosta was attached as director and co-writer (with Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik) to Marvel Studios’ The Marvels (2023), starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zane Ashton, Park Seo-Joon, and Samuel L. Jackson, and budgeted at $275 million.
Personal Details
Nia DaCosta was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Harlem by her parents. As a student, DaCosta shifted her focus from poetry to filmmaking after watching Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1987). This led to DaCosta attending New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she majored in filmmaking.
Filmography
Candyman
Writer (2021)
Little Woods
Writer (2019)
The Marvels
Director (2023)
Some Facts About Nia DaCosta
It Started with Literature: Nia DaCosta’s first passion was poetry, and she delved into literature in her high school’s AP English class, where she read Joseph Conrad’s classic novella, Heart of Darkness before she watched the epic film based on Conrad’s work, Apocalypse Now—which, in turn, inspired her to pursue a filmmaking career.
Major Influences: DaCosta, a fan of 1970s American moviemaking, lists her major filmmaking influences as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, and Steven Spielberg, but notes Scorsese as her key influence, and even chose NYU for her studies since that was where Scorsese attended.
Women Filmmaker Influences: Beyond the all-male 1970s group, it was directors Debra Granik and Courtney Hunt whom Nia DaCosta has cited as guiding influences for her debut feature, Little Woods.
Firsts: DaCosta is the first female Black filmmaker to have directed a movie that landed at number one on a weekly box office roster, for Candyman. She is also the first Black woman to direct a Marvel movie.
Awards
Winner, Most Anticipated Film for the rest of 2021, Hollywood Critics Association (2021); Nominee, Best Motion Picture Screenplay, NAACP Image Awards (2021); Winner, Nora Ephron Award, Tribeca Film Festival (2018).
