Personal details
Official sites :
Born:
- Birthday: 1989-11-08
- Born Place: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Also Known As:
Ниа ДаКоста
Nia DaCosta
Nia DaCosta is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and director who was born on November 8, 1989, in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Harlem. Her mother, Charmaine DaCosta, is Jamaican and was a founding vocalist for the band Worl-A-Girl. DaCosta initially aspired to be a poet but became focused on filmmaking after reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and watching Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, drawing inspiration from New Hollywood directors like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg. She studied film and television at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 2011, and later earned a master's degree from London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. DaCosta began her career as a television production assistant, working with prominent filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Steve McQueen, and Steven Soderbergh. She made her acclaimed feature film debut as both writer and director with the modern Western crime thriller Little Woods (2018), starring Tessa Thompson and Lily James, a project she developed through the Sundance Institute. The film earned her the Nora Ephron Prize for Female Filmmakers at the Tribeca Film Festival. Her success continued when she directed and co-wrote the horror film Candyman (2021), produced by Jordan Peele. With Candyman, which debuted at number one at the U.S. box office, DaCosta became the first Black woman director to achieve a number-one film in the U.S. She made history again by directing the Marvel Studios superhero film The Marvels (2023), becoming the youngest director and the first African American woman to helm a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film. Her upcoming projects include directing the sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) and writing, directing, and producing the film adaptation Hedda (2025), starring Tessa Thompson.
