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MICHAEL B JORDAN

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Michael B. Jordan grew up in front of the camera in the series The Wire and Friday Night Lights, then began his ascent as a movie star with the Ryan Coogler-directed Fruitvale Station. Next up, he will make his directing debut in Creed III. But behind the scenes, he’s making things happen too, as his Outlier Society production company works to empower change.

One of the first to sign on to an inclusion rider to ensure diversity, Jordan produced and starred in Just Mercy, highlighti­ng the work of renowned civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson to defend the rights of wrongly-convicted prisoners. Jordan is also exec producing 61st Street for AMC—A drama about an athlete caught up in the corrupt Chicago justice system—and producing projects including The Liberators, about the all-black 761st WWII regiment that led the charge to desegregat­e the armed forces in America.

A film and television overall deal at Amazon, where he starred in Without Remorse, gives Jordan the opportunit­y to use an unpreceden­ted sales platform to empower others. He has joined forces with former Nike marketing executive Chad Easterling to create the marketing firm Obsidianwo­rks—a venture that will bring together companies and consumers in the pursuit of authentic representa­tion of people of color. —Mike Fleming Jr.

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