John Ridley
| Name | John Ridley |
| Image |  |
| Caption | Ridley in 2013 |
| Birth Name | John Ridley IV |
| Birth Date | 1964-10-1 |
| Birth Place | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Alma Mater | New York University |
| Occupation | Screenwriter Novelist Television writer Television director |
| Years Active | 1988–present |
| Notable Works | 12 Years a Slave American Crime |
| Spouse | Gayle Ridley |
| Children | 2 |
John Ridley IV (born October 1, 1964) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the anthology series American Crime. In 2017 he directed the documentary film Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.
Early life
Ridley was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was raised from the age of seven in Mequon, Wisconsin, with an ophthalmologist father, John Ridley III, and a mother, Terry Ridley, who was a special education teacher for Milwaukee Public Schools. He has two sisters and is the middle sibling.
Ridley graduated from Homestead High School in Mequon, Wisconsin in 1982. He enrolled in Indiana University but transferred to New York University. There, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in East Asian languages. The subject wasn't applicable to his career, but it sparked his intellectual interests. Ridley is Christian.
Career
Following college, Ridley spent a year living and traveling in Japan. Then, he returned to New York and began performing standup comedy in New York City, and he made appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Moving to Los Angeles in 1990, he began writing for such television sitcoms as Martin, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and The John Larroquette Show.
After both writing and directing his film debut, the 1997 crime thriller Cold Around the Heart, he and Oliver Stone co-adapted Ridley's first novel, Stray Dogs (still unpublished when Stone bought the rights) into the 1997 Stone-directed film U Turn, which was released slightly earlier than Cold Around the Heart. Ridley went on to write the novels Love Is a Racket and Everybody Smokes in Hell.
He challenged himself to see how quickly he could write and sell a script, and produced and sold the original screenplay Spoils of War in 18 days, which was later adapted into the 1999 David O. Russell-directed Three Kings. Russell claimed he did not read Ridley's script, and just took the idea. Ridley received a "story by" credit negotiated among himself, Russell, and the releasing studio, Warner Bros. Ridley then became a writer and a supervising producer on the NBC crime drama Third Watch. His other novels are The Drift, Those Who Walk in Darkness, and A Conversation with the Mann. He also wrote the graphic novel The American Way.
From 2000 to 2010, he was a commentator and blogger for NPR. His blog was Visible Man, a play on Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. In 2003, Ridley inked a one-year overall deal with Universal Network Television.
His work as screenwriter also includes 12 Years a Slave, Red Tails, and Undercover Brother. His script for 12 Years a Slave won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, making Ridley the second African American to win the award, after Geoffrey S. Fletcher (for Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire).
In April 2015, Ridley was developing an ABC television series involving an existing Marvel Comics character. However, by December 2019, the project was cancelled due to Marvel Television folding into Marvel Studios. Ridley later revealed that his cancelled project would have been a version of Eternals, which was instead developed as an unrelated movie directed by Chloé Zhao.
On April 16, 2018, it was announced that Ridley would direct and write an adaptation of his graphic novel The American Way produced by Blumhouse Productions.
On June 4, 2018, it was announced that Ridley would direct a feature film adaptation of the Robert Silverberg short story, Needle in a Timestack produced by Bron Studios. The film featured performances from Leslie Odom Jr., Freida Pinto, Cynthia Erivo, and Orlando Bloom.
In 2021, Ridley began writing a number of series for DC Comics. The series include a new Batman series 'The Next Batman' as part of the company's line-wide event 'Future State', and a 5-issue series 'The Other History of the DC Universe' a text-based story about the history of the non-white, non-American DC heroes such as Black Lightning and Katana.
In May 2021, Marvel Comics announced that Ridley will write Black Panther comics.
Controversy
Ridley wrote an essay for the December 2006 issue of Esquire, "The Manifesto of Ascendancy for the Modern American Nigger". As the Associated Press reported, Ridley's essay had an "in-your-face style to rip the black underclass", with readers criticizing "the fact that a black person had blasted other blacks. In a national magazine. With a mostly white audience. Using the n-word". In his essay, Ridley said: "It's time for ascended blacks to wish niggers good luck. Just as whites may be concerned with the good of all citizens but don't travel their days worrying specifically about the well-being of hillbillies from Appalachia, we need to send niggers on their way." Leonard Pitts called that passage "addled" and contrary to "historical fact". South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist Sherri Winston compared the essay to Chris Rock's monologue "Niggas vs. Black People" and commented: "...where Rock was hailed, Ridley was assailed." The essay gained renewed attention in 2014 after Ridley won an Academy Award for 12 Years a Slave.