J.D. Walker

Originally from Oakland, California and trained as an actress, Walker is a Sundance Pitching Contest Winner for her second feature, a biopic about Oscar Micheaux. Walker's development on her Oscar Micheaux feature film has been chronicled in IndieWire (Shadow and Act). Her first feature script, "The Postwoman" earned Honorable Mention in the Sundance Table Read My Screenplay Contest. In her younger years, Walker was labeled a "gifted child" and took Gifted and Talented classes all throughout elementary, junior, and high school. In high school, she starred in and directed talent shows and won several awards as an actress for her dramatic rendition of August Wilson's "Fences." During her junior year in high school, she won the California Forensic State Championship in Dramatic Interpretation for her rendition of August Wilson's play, "Fences." In college, she remained on the Honor Roll and Dean's List every semester having earned her recognition with the Golden Key National Honor Society.Walker graduated cum laude from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Drama, where she performed in leading roles with The African American Shakespeare Co. and The San Francisco Mime Troupe. She was accepted into USC's School of Cinematic Arts and won the prestigious George Lucas Scholarship for her studies in the MFA Program in TV and Film. She was also offered a full-ride to Howard University, where she obtained both her M.A. and Ph.D. (with "distinction") in English (specializing in African American and Caribbean Literature). While at Howard, Walker self-published two books, worked as a radio host, and wrote cover stories for the Black press. Walker always knew she wanted to write, especially screenplays, and spent much of her time in DC honing her craft, serving, for 7 years, as a freelance journalist, writing feature stories on Black poets and writers while serving as a photojournalist for the The New York Amsterdam News, The Washington Informer, The Tennessee Tribune, and Heart & Soul magazine to name a few.An extensive background in publishing and journalism, Walker also served as a book buyer, hosting literary panels for authors. She's also served as a Marketing and Editorial Assistant for a University Press. While in D.C., Walker received scholarship awards for her writing from poets E. Ethelbert Miller and Sonia Sanchez, as well as from Gregory Allen Howard (Ali, Remember the Titans) from whom she took a screenwriting class. She toured with Sonia Sanchez, as her personal assistant, and performed her poetry live at literary conferences. Walker also received a National Visionary Heritage fellowship award from Camille O. Cosby, where she was trained to perform documentary work on historic elders over the age of 70. Walker's work with Cosby is now archived in The Smithsonian and a book called "A Wealth of Wisdom" (Atria Books 2004).Walker produced "The Postwoman" (short) for a class which later screened at many film festivals, including Frameline, The Boston LGBT Film Festival, Out in Film, The Reel Sistas of the African Diaspora Film Festival, The New York African Diaspora Film Festival, and The African American Film Festival in Portland, Oregon, to name a few, where it won best short. She considers, however, her first short to be another narrative called "The Young Oscar Micheaux," which was not produced for a class but rather for the film festival circuit and as a promo for her feature film on Oscar Micheaux.On the collegiate level, she has taught Drama, African American Independent Filmmakers, Documentary Making for Social Justice as well as courses on the Harlem Renaissance Movement and Black Arts Movement. As early as she can remember, Walker has been writing and directing her own shorts. Her love for literature and poetry continued throughout her college years and greatly impacted her storytelling as well as her quest to bring the untold stories of African Americans to the silver screen. Show less «