Dustin Lance Black

DUSTIN LANCE BLACK is a screenwriter, producer and director who won the 2009 Academy Award® and two Writers Guild of America Awards for his original screenplay "Milk," the biopic of the late civil rights activist Harvey Milk, starring Sean Penn.

An honors graduate of UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television, Black began his professional career as an art director and quickly transitioned to directing documentaries, television series, commercials and music videos. Black's documentaries "On the Bus," from 2001, and "My Life with Count Dracula," from 2003, debuted to acclaim and led to a successful stint producing and directing TLC and BBC's hit program "Faking It," which received notices for its unflinching social commentaries.

In 2004, Black signed on to draw on his devout Mormon childhood experiences in San Antonio, Texas as a writer and co-producer on HBO's Emmy and Golden Globe award-nominated polygamist drama "Big Love." He continued to write for the show until the third season wrapped in 2008.

Black also penned the screenplay for "Pedro," the first scripted project from Bunim-Murray Productions, about the life and legacy of famed HIV-positive "Real World" cast member Pedro Zamora. The film premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, and earned Black his second WGA Award nomination when it premiered on MTV and VH1 in 2009.

Black completed his feature directorial debut, "Virginia," starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris and "The Barefoot Bandit," based on the true story of Colton Harris-Moore.

Black is also a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), which is leading the federal case against Proposition 8 in California with lawyers David Boies and Ted Olson, and is on the Board of the Trevor Project, a suicide hotline providing crisis intervention services for youth.

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