African Americans in the film Industry

First African American film company

1916

First African American film company: Lincoln Motion Picture Company, 1916

First black film Director

1919

Film director: Oscar Micheaux, 1919

First African American Oscar winner

1940

First Oscar winner: Hattie McDaniel, 1940

First African American actress to be featured on a sitcom

1950

Ethel Waters played a titular role in the series Beulah, which premiered on October 3, 1950

First African American to host a network television show

1954

Nat 'King' Cole in "The Nat King Cole Show" (1954)

First African American nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress

1954

Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones (1954)

First African American actor to be nominated for an Academy Award

1958

Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones (1958)

First African American actor (male or female) to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award

1958

Diahann Carroll for "Naked City" (1958)

First African American star of a TV drama

1963

Cicely Tyson in "East Wide/West Side" (1963)

First African American to win an Oscar for Best Actor

1963

Oscar, Best Actor: Sidney Poitier 1963

First African American in a lead role on TV

1965

Bill Cosby first made his appearance in the drama I Spy in 1965 as the first African American in a lead role on TV

First black director for a major Hollywood studio

1969

Gordon Parks, who directed The Learning Tree (1969) for Warner Brothers

First African American to win a non-acting Academy Award

1972

Isaac Hayes, who won the award for Best Original Song for the "Theme From Shaft" from Shaft (1972)

TV's first interracial couple

1975

Actor and Actress, Franklin Clover and Roxie Roker, portrayed TV’s first interracial couple, Tom and Helen Willis on the “Jeffersons.” The couple was a trailblazer for shows to feature interracial romances and blended families as something that was normal.

First African American actress to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

1981

Isabel Sanford for "The Jeffersons" in 1981

First African American to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

1983

Louis Gossett Jr. for An Officer and a Gentleman (1983)

First African American actor to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

1985

Robert Guillaume for "Benson" in 1985

First African American producer to be nominated for Best Picture

1985

Quincy Jones for The Color Purple (1985)

First African American to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score

1985

Prince for Purple Rain (1985)

First African American woman to host a daytime talk show

1986

Oprah Winfrey in "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (1986)

First African American to win an Academy Award for Best Original Score

1987

Herbie Hancock for 'Round Midnight (1987)

First black female director for a major Hollywood Studio

1991

Woman director for a major Hollywood Studio: Julie Dash, 1991

First African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director

1992

John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood (1992)

First African American woman to win Golden Globe for Best Actress

1993

Angela Bassett in What's Love Got to Do With It (1993)

First Individual Black Host Of The Oscars

1994

In the Academy Awards’ 87 year history there have been 75 celebrity hosts, but only five have been black. Whoopi Goldberg would be the first black person to host the awards without a co-host in 1994

First African American to win an Oscar for Best Actress

2001

Oscar, Best Actress: Halle Berry, 2001

First African American to win two Academy Awards for acting

2001

Denzel Washington in Glory (1989), for which he won Best Supporting Actor, and Training Day (2001), for which he won Best Actor

First Disney Princess of African American Heritage

2009

Tiana, heroine of The Princess of the Frog (2009), who was voiced by Anika Noni Rose

First black President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

2013

First President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscars): Cheryl Boone Isaacs, 2013

First black director to win an Emmy in comedy

2017

The 33-year-old actor, writer, director and musician already won two Golden Globes for creating and starring in the show “Atlanta” earlier this year. And at the 69th annual Emmy Awards on Sunday, he won yet another statue for directing