A native of New Orleans, Jackie Alexander is an award winning actor, writer, producer, director, former Artistic Director of The Billie Holiday Theatre in New York, and current Artistic Director of The North Carolina Black Repertory Theatre, producers of The National Black Theatre Festival. His debut feature film Joy, on which he served as actor, writer, and director was awarded Best Feature Film 2002 by the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Blackfilm.com sponsored a national tour of the film that included screenings at the Director’s Guild of America in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art in Chicago, the French Embassy in Washington D.C., and the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York. The film also earned Best Actor and Best Screenplay honors for Jackie on the festival circuit.
Jackie’s debut novel, Our Daily Bread, was published by Turner Publishing in the fall of 2012. The book was acquired by publishing veteran, Diane Gedymin, who also acquired the #1 New York Times best sellers Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier, and The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds; both Oprah Book Club selections. Gedymin described Our Daily Bread as “moving and evocative,” and stated that, “it is important to get Our Daily Bread into the hands of readers who will be enriched by Alexander’s unique perspective.”
After a sixteen year relationship working as an actor, writer, director, and producer with The Billie Holiday Theatre in New York, Jackie was named Artistic Director of the theatre in 2013. As Artistic Director, he oversaw a redesign of the theatre’s website, expanded programming to include a reading series, developmental workshops, film screenings, and topical community discussion panels, and launched new fundraising initiatives like the Back the Billie campaign and a 2014 cultivation event that attracted high profile guests such as filmmaker Malcolm Lee, actors Wendell Pierce and Michael Potts, and Publicist Terri Williams. Publicity from this event substantially raised BHT’s profile to kick-off the 2014-2015 season, resulting in coverage by the New York Times and other NY media, partnerships with The Brooklyn Historical Society and BRIC Media Arts, and attendance by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray at BHT’s 2015 production of Brothers from the Bottom. During Jackie’s two-year tenure as Artistic Director, BHT was awarded a prestigious Mellon Grant, the first private funding awarded to the theatre in over thirty years, and nominated for an astounding seventeen AUDELCO awards for excellence in Black Theatre; taking home the top prize nine times.
–JackieAlexanderProductions.com
| Credit Type | Production | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Director | Plenty of Time | 2012-13 Season |
| Actor | Plenty of Time | 2012-13 Season |