Salli Richardson-Whitfield On Making Emmy History And Opening Doors For Black Women

Salli Richardson-Whitfield never planned on becoming a director. Now, she is making history as one— again . For much of her career, audiences knew Richardson-Whitfield from in front of the camera. Her résumé stretches back to the early 1990s, with roles in A Low Down Dirty Shame , Eureka and I Am Legend . Directing wasn’t part of some master plan, but the possibility only entered her mind after Ava DuVernay recognized something Richardson-Whitfield had yet to recognize in herself while they were making I Will Follow .  “I think you’re a director and you don’t know it,” DuVernay told her. What followed was a second career whose success has surpassed even her own expectations. In 2024, her work on HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty made her the first Black woman nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. Now, she has entered the record books again. Her nominations for Task and The Gilded Age make Richardson-Whitfield the first woman to receive two directing nominations in the category in the same year. She is also nominated as an executive producer on The Gilded Age , which is up for Outstanding Drama Series. Her path also says something about who gets to imagine themselves behind the camera in the first place. Richardson-Whitfield spent decades working primarily under male directors. Seeing DuVernay directing her own feature gave her a reference point she hadn’t previously had. Now, Richardson-Whitfield has become one …