Kevin Willmott

Kevin Willmott
Kevin Willmott
Born	August 31, 1959 (age 65); Junction City, Kansas, U.S.
Alma mater	Marymount College (BA); New York University (MFA)
Occupation(s)	Film director and writer; college film professor
Employer	University of Kansas
Awards	Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

Kevin Willmott (born August 31, 1959)^[1] is an Academy Award-winning American film director and screenwriter. He is known for work focusing on black issues including writing and directing Ninth Street, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, and Bunker Hill.

His The Only Good Indian (2009) was a feature film about Native American children at an Indian boarding school and the forced assimilation that took place. In Jayhawkers (2014), he followed the life of Wilt Chamberlain, Phog Allen and the 1956 Kansas Jayhawks basketball team. Willmott has collaborated with Spike Lee, with whom he shared an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. The two again collaborated in writing Da 5 Bloods, released worldwide digitally on June 12, 2020.

Wilmott is a professor of film at the University of Kansas.^[2]

Biography

Willmott grew up in Junction City, Kansas, and received a BA in Drama from Marymount College. He received a M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from New York University.^[3] He has worked as a screenwriter and film director, known for work related to African-American history and contemporary issues. In 2017, Willmott taught classes in a bulletproof vest in protest of the ability of students and staff to carry concealed weapons on the campus.^[2]

He won the Best Director award at the American Indian Film Festival for The Only Good Indian.^[4] Willmott's next film, Jayhawkers, received funding through Kickstarter, a crowdsourcing website.^[5]

In 2019, Willmott won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film BlacKkKlansman.^[6]^[7]

Personal life

Willmott is Catholic, and has cited Fr Dan Berrigan, SJ as an influence in his life and work.^[8]

Filmography

Crew

Film

Year	Title	Crew position
1999	Ninth Street	Director, writer, producer
2004	C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America	Director and writer
2008	Bunker Hill	Director, writer, and producer
2008	The Only Good Indian	Director and producer
2013	Destination: Planet Negro	Director and writer
2013	Jayhawkers	Director, writer, and producer
2015	Chi-Raq	Writer
2018	BlacKkKlansman	Writer
2020	Da 5 Bloods	Writer
2020	The 24th	Director and co-writer
2020	William Allen White: What's the Matter with Kansas?	Director and writer

Television

Year	Title	Crew position
2000	The '70s	Writer
2005	High Tech Lincoln	Producer

Acting

Year	Title	Role
1999	Ninth Street	Huddie
2003	The Fascist of X-Mart	Narrator
2003	The Search for Inflata-boy	Expert
2004	C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America	Extra
2009	Next Caller	God (voice)
2010	AIR: The Musical	The Detective
2013	Destination Planet Negro	Dr. Warrington Avery
2013	Unit 12	Bill Swaan
2014	Jayhawkers	Dowdall Davis
2015	Lena Laine	Ryan
2016	From Ashes to Immortality	Dr. Frank Ryan
2017	The Profit	Doctor
2019	The Computer Lab	The Futurist (1 episode)
2021	Rainbow Boulevard	The Narrator (voice)
2021	The Funny Guy	Kevin Weston

References

^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 25, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ ^a ^b Dinsdale, Ryan (June 9, 2020). "Oscar winner, KU professor Kevin Willmott shares his love of activism, Kansas and teaching". The University Daily Kansan. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
^ [1] Archived September 6, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
^ [2] Archived July 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
^ ""Jayhawkers" – Feature Film by Kevin Willmott". Kickstarter.com. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
^ Bierman, Courtney & Josh McQuade (February 24, 2019). "KU's Kevin Willmott takes home Oscar for work on 'BlacKkKlansman'". The University Daily Kansan. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
^ "After Oscar win, KU's Kevin Willmott talks Trump tweet, his next film with Spike Lee". The Kansas City Star.
^ Loeb, Jeff; Willmott, Kevin (2001). "A Conversation with Kevin Willmott". African American Review. 35 (2): 249–262. doi:10.2307/2903256. ISSN 1062-4783. JSTOR 2903256.

External links

Kevin Willmott at IMDb
On Story – A Conversation with Kevin Willmott [3]

[1] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 25, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[:0-2] Dinsdale, Ryan (June 9, 2020). "Oscar winner, KU professor Kevin Willmott shares his love of activism, Kansas and teaching". The University Daily Kansan. Retrieved September 26, 2021.

[3] [1] Archived September 6, 2006, at the Wayback Machine

[4] [2] Archived July 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine

[5] ""Jayhawkers" – Feature Film by Kevin Willmott". Kickstarter.com. Retrieved December 26, 2015.

[6] Bierman, Courtney & Josh McQuade (February 24, 2019). "KU's Kevin Willmott takes home Oscar for work on 'BlacKkKlansman'". The University Daily Kansan. Retrieved September 26, 2021.

[7] "After Oscar win, KU's Kevin Willmott talks Trump tweet, his next film with Spike Lee". The Kansas City Star.

[8] Loeb, Jeff; Willmott, Kevin (2001). "A Conversation with Kevin Willmott". African American Review. 35 (2): 249–262. doi:10.2307/2903256. ISSN 1062-4783. JSTOR 2903256.

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