Jeymes Samuel

Jeymes Samuel is a British singer/songwriter/music producer who has shifted to filmmaking as a director/writer/producer and has frequently collaborated with hip-hop music legend Jay-Z. Although Samuel began his creative life as a young man with filmmaking, he pursued music starting at age 13, going on to release a studio album, a soundtrack album, a mixtape, and nine singles under the artist name The Bullitts.

Samuel’s first feature movie credit was as executive music consultant for filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and musician Jay-Z for The Great Gatsby (2013). Starting in 2013, Jeymes Samuel returned to his filmmaking roots by making a short film that premiered at the South by Southwest film festival, They Die By Dawn (2013), set in 1890s Oklahoma and with Michael K. Williams, Erykah Badu, Isaiah Washington, Jesse Williams, and Rosario Dawson, with the film tied in with his 2013 The Bullitts album, They Die By Dawn & Other Short Stories. Samuel then reunited with Jay-Z as director/writer/producer of a short film, Jay-Z: Legacy (2017), followed by Samuel shifting to executive music producer for co-writer/director Aaron Woodley’s animated feature, Arctic Dogs (2019).

Jeymes Samuel made his feature film debut as director/co-writer/producer/composer of the stylish and well-received Western, The Harder They Fall (2021), co-written with Boaz Yakin, and starring Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, Regina King, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Danielle Deadwyler, Edi Gathegi, and Deon Cole, and which premiered at the London film festival before a limited theatrical run followed by Netflix streaming.

Samuel returned for his second feature as director/writer/producer/composer of the Monty Python-influenced, Biblical comedy-drama, The Book of Clarence (2023), starring Stanfield, Omar Sy, RJ Cyler, Anna Diop, David Oyelowo, Michael Ward, Alfre Woodard, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, James McAvoy, and Benedict Cumberbatch, and premiering at the London film festival to fine reviews. Samuel was the producer and composer of the Netflix movie, Teddy (date to be announced), written, directed, and starring Kid Cudi, who—like Samuel—has expanded from recording artist-songwriter-producer to feature films.