DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD -- Dunye, who is directing episodes of Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar” for OWN, emerged as part of the New Queer Cinema wave of young filmmakers in the 1990s. Dunye has made more than 15 films including “Mommy Is Coming,” “The Owls,” “My Baby’s Daddy” and HBO’s “Stranger Inside,” which garnered her an Independent Spirit nomination for Best Director. Her debut feature film, “The Watermelon Woman,” which was awarded the Teddy Prize at the Berlinale in 1996, was recently restored by the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project for the film’s 20th anniversary, and has been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art for its permanent collection.
Dunye received a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship and the inaugural Outfest Fusion Achievement Award in 2007, which recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to LGBT arts and media visibility for rarely represented communities of color. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a professor in the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University.