Dee Rees

Diandrea "Dee" Rees (born February 7, 1977) is an American screenwriter and director. She is known for her feature films Pariah (2011), Bessie (2015), Mudbound (2017), and The Last Thing He Wanted (2020). Rees has also written and directed episodes for television series, including Empire, When We Rise, and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.

Rees is the first African-American woman nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, for Mudbound. She has also received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, and won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film for Bessie.

Rees received a United States Artists Fellowship in 2011.

Spike Lee was Rees's mentor throughout her time at NYU Tisch, and the two worked on films together such as Inside Man (2006) and When The Levees Broke (2006). Lee also worked as a producer on Rees's breakout film, Pariah.

Rees is a lesbian, and lives in Harlem with her wife, National-Book-Award-winning writer Sarah M. Broom.

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