John Ridley

John Ridley's biography

John Ridley is 57 years old film director born at Milwaukee. He was born on Friday 1st of October 1965. According to year of birth 1965 he belongs to Boomers. Birthday on 1st of October means he is Libra. Libra sign depicts that it is all about “Balance”. It seems that their life is very balanced, however, things are way opposite as they always face unstable situations in order to balance it further.

He is citizen of United States of America. His primary profession is to be film director. You can know him also as screenwriter, novelist, writer, science fiction writer, executive producer, censor, showrunner, television producer. He is recently known as comics writer. He received Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay 12 Years a Slave in 2012

John Ridley's schools

We found 1 school He attended. Name of the school: New York University.

John Ridley's career

His main focus is to be film director.

Awards and competitions

John Ridley's Awards

• He received award for Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for work 12 Years a Slave in 2012

John Ridley's Nominations

• He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

John Ridley's quotes

• I don't think I'm alarmist. I'm more disappointed by the euphemisms in some instances than outright bigotry. Now, to me, you walk around with a Klan hat on or you've got a swastika on you arm, you just look like a dope, you know what I mean?
• Facts tend to take the punch out of a good hate rant and are therefore left best unsaid.
• Bigots are actually funny to me in the way that people who still wear parachute pants give me a chuckle.
• I don't know what's hipper: to Facebook or to Twitter. I just know for me, personally, discretion never went out of style.
• It does no good to believe in what does not exist to the point one cannot focus on what is real. That would be the greatest tragedy of any 'conspiracy.'
• Old white guys can be a funny bunch, can't they? The same anti-same-sex marriage, anti-affirmative action cadre can flower into the biggest supporters of 'equality' the minute they get a whiff of minority empowerment.
• Slavery was not a bad day on the job. It was not your boss yelling at you. It was not hard work for little pay. This was a full system of human subjugation.
• White folks, no matter how well-meaning or open-minded, have no true idea what it's like to be black in America. That's not a slam against white people or an accusation of latent bigotry. But the fact is that we all live in an Anglo-dominated society.
• Perhaps the single most important thing for a child is to be with a loving, supportive family. And all things being equal, any child of any race should be placed with any qualified parents without restriction or special conditions.
• With writing, timing is everything. Being in the right place at the right time.
• The great thing about working with NPR - and, really, there's like a million of 'em - is all the cool stuff I get to do for the public. Meet the president. Hang out at the National Finals Rodeo in Vegas. Drink a $10,000 martini.
• Much as banks don't care where your money's coming from, the Electoral College is all 'don't ask, don't care' when it comes to votes.
• I got a call saying that George Lucas wanted to meet me. Of all the phone calls I've received - Oliver Stone wants to meet you; Spike Lee wants to meet you - that was the one call I never in a million years thought was going to happen.
• I don't want an underachiever working on my car's transmission. Why would I want someone regular sitting in the Oval Office? Sorry, give me somebody who has demonstrated a capacity to excel.
• For every horrific event, something beautiful happens.
• Slavery is something that affects all of us. It's all of our history.
• Oh, happy day when the enemies of ascendancy have got to confess that people of color rock.
• When it comes to fighting for freedom, those who are willing to fight should not be limited by our bigotry. Only rewarded with our gratitude.
• Being of color in America by no means amounts to a constant barrage of negativity. However, unlike being white, being of color means one's race is a constant issue.
• Our touchstones of slavery are 'Song of the South,' 'Gone With the Wind' and 'The Birth of a Nation.' It's hard to separate the cinematic quality from the underlying themes. I appreciate the films, but the message was repugnant.
• The hypocrisy and false piety of the deniers aside, the relationships of gays have no effect on heteros. Especially all the heteros who've done such a marvelous job of debasing marriage on their own all these many years.
• If art is singular expression, then by nature, the best art is controversial. But when art stirs debate for reasons besides its artistic integrity, that's when things get bent.
• Republicans can be a funny bunch. They're against affirmative action, but they always seem to be able to find people of color to fill a slot just when they're most needed.
• There are still some people out there who believe comic books are nothing more than, well, comic books. But the true cognoscenti know graphic novels are - at their best - an amazing blend of art literature and the theater of the mind.
• Writing a screenplay needs to be more than words on a page - and by the way, I think the words on the page are something you have to try to execute on the highest level you can; I'm not dismissing that by any regard.
• There's no disputing that for pols, the Internet is a great way to connect with people and raise some cash and post 'Sopranos' parodies or play your opponent's macaca moments. But in a 'net root' sense, it's pretty useless for getting someone elected.
• Why is it that the very people who have fought so hard and so long for the simple entitlement to love whom they choose to love are the very ones denied that right by those who routinely take their vows for granted?
• Let's be very clear: Living 'unforgiven' is not the sole domain of blacks. It can be found in any successful person.
• Quite simply, quite plainly, just by virtue of his being, Obama is America. The first true American to lead our nation.
• There is not a country on earth whose people don't deserve to be free and safe.
• Obama is the New Generation and the hot light of a dawn that goes way beyond clever talk of morning in America.
• If some of us can get an Oscar for extolling that it's hard out there for a pimp, why can't others of us admonish: 'Then quit acting like a pimp'?
• I still have my first 'Black Lightning' that I got way back in the day, and my first 'Steel.' And I proudly display those comics, by the way. I have a lot of comics, but those are among the ones that mean the most to me.
• With fear of stating the obvious: Freedom belongs to 'We the People,' not 'They the Politicians.'
• I can tell you from personal experience it gets a little tiring having to make the rounds on cable shows to explain 'what's up with black folks.'
• Even I haven't downed enough L.A. Kool-Aid to believe that somehow Hollywood movies are an overt instrument of morality.
• I understand politicos gotta make bank. But cloistering with the Hollywood elite is not how you prove you're a man of the people.
• Seriously, you know - I love to write. I enjoy the process; I enjoy the different processes, because writing for film and television and graphic novels is all very different. So I've never had the feeling of, 'Oh, you have to do this one thing.'
• I love graphic novels - I love reading them, I enjoyed writing them, I would love to go back and do them again. I hope I'm savvy enough to do them in the right way.
• I like animals. I like people who like animals. I hate people who love animals to the point they lose their sense of reason. I'm talking the 'my computer wallpaper is my dog,' 'I hang a Christmas stocking for my cat' crowd.
• I've never been much of a European traveler. London once on a book tour, and Italy because that's where Ferraris are from. That's about it.
• I'm sorry, but chick fights are sexy. If you don't think so, you're either an uptight woman or a lying man.
• I've no desire to start a movement, to be the first name on an open petition, or to be the poster child for disgruntled writers.
• I'm John the Fourth, so I think there's a lot of things in life that have been truly handed to me by the hard work and the pain of others.
• I've written films that are violent. I'm not big on sitting and watching violence.
• As long as we remain committed to holding high our individuals of supreme finish, others will be inspired to loose themselves of the gravity of the waywards and downtroddens.
• Awards shows have devolved into self-parodies - liberals in limos, corny insider jokes delivered by the hosts among bad teleprompter reading from the some of the best thespians on the planet.
• While most trudge through their days straight-jacketed in the social compact, living for others as much as or more than for themselves, a select few excel.
• So, is Hollywood anti-religion? Not in my opinion. But unlike, say, politicians and preachers who talk faith before going off to speak in tongues to their mistresses, Hollywood just doesn't wear its faith on its sleeve.
• Yes, it's hard to stay in shape, but it's also hard to raise kids. That doesn't mean you get to drop them off at your local fire station when they get to be a handful.
• In the Everybody-Give-Me-A-Hug victim culture in which we live, the obese want a spot at the table along with those who face discrimination based on the way that God or Nature or our Intelligent Designer created us.
• Not only does Hollywood make money - it seems to make better movies during recessions. I'm sure a lot of studio executives wish we could have one every year.
• If the American public is so into morality in movies, why don't they throw more of their disposable income at religious-themed entertainment? For every 'Passion of the Christ,' there's a 'Fireproof' that comes and goes with no notice.
• It's funny: over time, if you're fortunate, you build a nice career, and you have these interesting moments, and I would not, looking back, trade any of them - 'Red Tails,' '12 Years a Slave' and 'Undercover Brother.'
• Until politicos take a true stand in defense of marriage by proposing an anti-adultery amendment to the Constitution, stop demonizing gays and lesbians when the one debasing your marriage is the individual in the mirror.
• People of color grow up steeped in 'white' culture. The reverse is not true. And, no, listening to hip-hop on the way to work does not count as immersion.
• Why do we cling to bigotry? Because bigotry, plainly, is convenient. It is a near-effortless way to both elevate one's stature and make a pity grab in this culture of victims that we have become.
• When times are tough, people want to escape to somewhere fantastic without having to pay actual escape-to-somewhere-fantastic cash. And offering a couple of hours away from the ordinary is what the movies do best.
• There are some individuals who look at graphic novels as 'canon,' and they cannot change in any way, shape or form, and that's what makes them in some ways good fans.
• Fanboys are a creator's blessing and curse. If a fanboy likes you, they love you. Obsessively. If you cross them with some plot point or story direction they reject, expect to be wholly and continually eviscerated across the Internet.
• If faux liberal white guys want to support and defend Obama, by all means please do so. But I would suggest they try to limit that support to matters of policy and not perspectives on race.
• I don't really have anything against the French except that, as an American, I've been bred to despise them with the same zeal as soccer and Renny Harlin films.
• I remember 'Roots' growing up and the cultural impact it had on the country. Watching 'Roots' was not the cool remove of reading about slavery in a book or hearing about it in class. It became something that swept people along.
• I didn't know I was a good director, and I mean that sincerely. I had done a film a long time ago called 'Cold Around the Heart.' Nobody saw it, and it didn't turn out the way I wanted to.
• See also Other Works |  Publicity Listings |  Official Sites

John Ridley's body shape

Lets describe how John Ridley looks. We will focus on his body shape. Body build is average.