On this day in comedy on December 15, 1961 Director, Writer, Producer, Reginald Alan Hudlin was born in Centreville, Il.
Hudlin burst onto the entertainment scene with a project he developed in college. House Party was originally a student film he directed while at Harvard University. It not only got him noticed, but earned him multiple awards, one being the top honor at the Black American Cinema Society Awards. He would later team up with his older brother, and fellow director / producer, Warrington Hudlin to bring a feature length version of the short to the big screen in 1990, starring rap sensations, Kid-N-Play and comedy phenomenon, Robin Harris.
The Ivy Leaguer kept his eye on the lens. Hudlin directed the Eddie Murphy hit, Boomerang in 1992. He helmed The Great White Hype with Damon Wayans, The Ladies Man with Tim Meadows and 2002’s Serving Sara. He also kept a hand in television directing episodes of Modern Family, The Office, The Middle, Outsourced and numerous episodes of The Bernie Mac Show where he was also a producer.
Hudlin continued to stretch his artistic tentacles. From 2005-2008 he was the President of BET. During that same period, he penned the Marvel Comics Series Black Panther and kept his hands in animation as the executive producer of the Aaron McGruder smash hit, The Boondocks. In 2012 Reginald Hudlin received an Academy Award nomination as a producer of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. He later served as executive producer of the NAACP Image Awards, garnering the show its highest ratings ever on NBC (2013) and the highest rated program in the history of TV-One (2014).
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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