Nate Parker (born November 18, 1979) is an American actor and musical performer who has appeared in Red Tails, The Secret Life of Bees, The Great Debaters, and Pride. He was an All-American wrestler in both at Great Bridge High School and at the University of Oklahoma. Parker has been active in charitable work, donating his time both as a volunteer wrestling coach and a political activist.
Screenwriter, Musician, Film producer, Film director, Actor, Coach
Education
Pennsylvania State University, University of Oklahoma
Nationality
American
Spouse
Sarah DiSanto
Children
Justice Parker
Parents
Carolyn Parker
Nominations
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture
Movies
The Birth of a Nation, Beyond the Lights, The Great Debaters, Red Tails, Non-Stop, The Secret Life of Bees, Eden, Arbitrage, About Alex, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Pride, Every Secret Thing, Rome & Jewel, Felon, Red Hook Summer, Blood Done Sign My Name, They Die By Dawn, Tunnel Rats, #AmeriCan, Dirty...
Star Sign
Scorpio
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Quote
1
[on Nat Turner] He became my hero in college. I never heard about him until I went to college. [2016]
2
[on The Birth of a Nation (2016)] I don't want this to be a film. I want it to be a movement. I don't want it to be a moment in time. I want a launch pad for conversation around how we can deal with our trauma collectively. Then we can create a cultural shift. [2016]
3
[Essence.com, August 2012] I'd love to play Nat Turner. What I would never play? Anyone wearing a dress. We just need more images of men. We've been emasculated physically, metaphorically too many times for me to support it. For me, that's where the line stops.
4
[on the new 'Nate Parker School of Film and Drama' at Wiley College] The hope is that we cover all aspects of filmmaking, from sound, lighting and cinematography, to just studying film specifically with the cultural component and the history of film. (...) You control the moving picture, you control the masses ... so really getting them rallied around the idea of reclaiming the narrative of America, specifically through the eyes of people of color. (...) If I can create a pipeline toward filmmaking physically through developing the college, having filmmakers be nurtured and cultivated here, and then having somewhere for them to go with respect for them actually being able to engage in filmmaking here in East Texas, then it kind of serves multiple purposes. [March 2016]
5
I decided to take on projects that I thought would break down walls rather than build them up, and to perpetuate positivity rather than to enforce negativity in who I was as a black man.
6
I want to pick material that involves me. I always tell my team that I never want to make the same movie twice. That's what terrifies me the most.
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Fact
1
Stated in an interview with BET that in an effort to preserve the Black man, he will, among many things, never play a gay character. Parker complained about Hollywood offering Black men roles that requires dresses and duct tape - though Parker took it one step further when he said Hollywood also offers Black men roles that consist of "men with questionable sexuality.".
2
Member of the 'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) since 2016.
3
In 2016 Nate Parker opened a film program named after him at the Wiley College in Texas: The Nate Parker School of Film and Drama. Parker is not the first director to do so: Other directors who created their own film school/program/course include David Lynch, Werner Herzog, Andrzej Wajda and Béla Tarr.
4
Nate was NCAA All-American in Wrestling at 141 lbs. in 2002 for the University of Oklahoma. He was also a High School All-American as well while attending Great Bridge High School in Virginia.
5
He and his wife Sarah DiSanto are college sweethearts. They met while attending Pennsylvania State University and have 4 daughters. Parker had another daughter with an unnamed woman.
$3 Million
