Morenike Efuntade Evans --Director's Bio

MORENIKE EFUNTADE EVANS
Director/Writer/Producer


Morenike, has worked extensively as a filmmaker and television producer for networks including MTV, BET and BET Jazz in addition to working on several Hollywood and independent film projects for almost a decade. After graduating from Prairie View A&M University’s Benjamin Banneker Honors College with a BA in Mass Communications, she was on track to be a promising journalist, reporting for both The Sacramento Bee and The Washington Post. But she soon turned her focus to film, and enrolled in The American University’s Film School.
“Working as a journalist became too constricting for me and my creativity. Filmmaking, and the ability to tell stories from my perspective has been the most fulfilling decision I’ve ever made. It gives me the opportunity to portray the African-American experience as I and many other people know it.”—Morenike

After completing her MA in Film, she established herself as an up-and-coming filmmaker by producing, directing and co-writing “The Water Story,” a short film she classifies as an “urban folktale.” That film has been featured on BET Movies/ Starz! cable network, the SEPIA Reel Shades Film series and the DC Dance Film Festival. The film was selected in June 2005 to air in syndication nationwide as a part of the African American Shorts film series produced by Badami Productions in LA.

In Spring 2005 her screenplay, “Reality Check” advanced as a finalist in the Tribeca All Access Program (TAA). It was also a semi-finalist in the 2005 Scriptapalooza screenwriting competition. In 2004, her script “Oil & Blood” was also a finalist in TAA and in the 2004 African-American Women in Cinema screenplay contest. Recently, she was selected as an IFP/New York: Project Involve Fellow in Fall 2003. Morenike also received a 2003 Telly Award for a one-hour show she directed, wrote and produced for the BET Jazz Channel featuring Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

She recently directed a music video for American Idol finalist George Huff and has worked with many high-profile people in the entertainment business including Outkast, Boyz II Men, Will Smith, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Clipse, Janet Jackson, Bebe Winans, Kim Fields, and Usher.

She is currently in pre-production for "Reality Check" a feature which she will direct in 2007.