AVA DUVERNAY

Since making her feature debut in 2010 with I Will Follow, Emmyand Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava Duvernay has become one of the busiest directors in the biz. But she’s just as big a player behind the scenes, and this year Duvernay and her long-standing ARRAY project were awarded top honors at the Peabody Awards for “amplifying film and TV projects by people of color and women filmmakers”. The honor comes in the wake of a new venture Duvernay and the ever-expanding ARRAY launched recently in partnership with

Google: in June, the tech giant and ARRAY announced a new $500k feature-film grant available to up-and-coming creatives from historically underrepresented communities, with below-the-line support from the ARRAY Crew initiative that was launched earlier this year. Duvernay’s commitment to diversifying film and TV sets extends to overseeing shows where inclusion is front and center; such projects include the Oprah Winfrey Network drama Queen Sugar, which she EPS, and The CW’S superhero series Naomi. —Justin Kroll ★