DIRECTORS

Tonya Lewis Lee is a director, producer, author whose work often explores the personal impact of social justice issues. As a television producer, Tonya served as Executive Producer on the episodic series She’s Gotta Have It which is currently streaming on Netflix. As a film producer, Lee produced Monster which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and is now available on Netflix. Most recently Lee co-directed and co-produced Aftershock which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, that examines the U.S. maternal mortality crisis winning the Special Jury Award for Impact for Change and was acquired by Onyx and ABC News to stream on Hulu. IndieWire named Tonya as one of 22 rising female filmmakers to watch in 2022. Tonya is also a fierce advocate on issues of race, gender and reproductive rights. From 2007 to 2015 she was the spokesperson for the Healthy Baby Begins with You infant mortality awareness raising campaign developed by the U.S Department Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. She is a director emeritus of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a member of the board of trustees of the March of Dimes. Her children’s books Please Baby Please and Please Puppy Please have sold millions of copies entertaining children and families for twenty years.