Biography
Dianne Houston is an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter. Born on 22 July 1954 in Washington, D.C., she attended Howard University. She began in experimental theatre in New York before moving into film and television.
Houston wrote and directed the 1995 short film Tuesday Morning Ride, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film in 1996, becoming the first African-American woman nominated for an Oscar in a directing category. Her other credits as writer include the screenplay for Take the Lead (2006) and episodes of Empire (2015–2020) and When We Rise (2017). She has directed episodes of NYPD Blue (2002), Crossing Jordan (2004), Empire and other series, as well as the television films Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland (2017) and Runaway Island (2015).
