ANTWONE FISHER
Biography
Today we know Antwone Fisher as an award-winning film and literary writer. However, his life did not begin with such promise...
Born Antwone Quenton Fisher in an Ohio prison to a teenaged mother, Antwone became a ward of the state and was placed in foster care immediately. He spent two years in a loving foster home, but when social Services deemed that the foster mother had become too attached to Antwone - coupled with his father having been murdered two months before his birth and determining a reunion with his birth mother would be too difficult for him - Antwone was placed in another home. Unfortunately, he would suffer twelve years of abuse at the hands of this new foster family.
Unable to locate new placement for him at age 14, Antwone was sent to a reform school in western Pennsylvania were he remained until he graduated high school at age 17. However, having graduated and as well as being emancipated from foster care, he found himself in the world alone, homeless living on the streets of Cleveland, Ohio. Antwone survived foster care's cruelties and the brutalities of homelessness and set on a course of healing when he joined the United States Navy where he served this country for eleven years, and became fluent in the Japanese language.
After his honorable discharge from military service, he applied and was accepted to the Federal Law Enforcement Academy at Glynco, Georgia, and graduated as a Federal Correctional Officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and after three years of service, he took a job at Sony Pictures Entertainment working as a Security Officer. It was at Sony Pictures Antwone was referred to a free screenwriting course, and the rest, as they say, is history...
Antwone has now worked in Hollywood for 17 years as a writer and producer, with an impressive fourteen writing projects or assignments with the major studios.
Among those project is the feature classic, ANTWONE FISHER (Fox Searchlight), directed by and starring Oscar winning actor Denzel Washington and written by Antwone based on his own life. Antwone the film and cast garnered quite a few nominations and awards. Antwone individually received the renowned Humanitas Prize, The Screenwriter of the Year Award from the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), and the Best Original Screenplay nomination for the film Antwone Fisher, from the Writers Guild of America, west. Antwone was also listed in Variety's "Fifty People to watch" and Fade in Magazine's "Top 100 People in Hollywood you Need to Know".
Antwone also took the literary world by storm with his first book, Finding Fish: a memoir (William Morrow), about his inspiring story that became a New York Times best seller. Unable to fully cover all that he wanted in the screenplay (and therefore the film), Antwone decided to write Finding Fish to not only expand on his incredible life's journey, but to divulge other challenges and triumphs in his life.
He followed Finding Fish with his collection of poetry entitled, Who Will Cry For The Little Boy? (William Morrow), that became a National Best Seller. Through his book of poetry Antwone creatively discloses the inner truths of the road from his tumultuous childhood to the man he is now. Today, Who Will Cry For The Little Boy? is considered one of the all time best-selling books of poetry. In addition, Antwone work of poetry is featured in the revered poet, Nikki Giovanni's book for children, Hip Hop Speaks to Children. Antwone's third book A Boy Should Know How To Tie A Tie And Other Lessons For Succeeding In Life, won the award for Outstanding Literary Work Instructional from the 2011 NAACP Awards and is already in it's third printing, Simon & Schuster's Touchstone Fireside.
On October 5th 2009, with the enthusiastic approval of the Master Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy, Force Master Chief of Navy Recruiting Command appoints Antwone Fisher, Honorary Chief Petty Officer, an appointment granted the full honors incumbent to it's office. This is an honor Antwone holds with great pride.
Due to the breath of his life and career, Antwone has received other accolades including: the National Angel in Adoption Award and a Doctor of Humane Letters from Cleveland State University. Antwone was conferred the honorary degree for his professional achievements as an author, producer, poet and screenwriter, his loyalty to his community, his personal triumphs and his indomitable spirit of never giving up.
Antwone is now entering the theater world with his new stage project, ANTWONE FISHER: A PLAY. The structure is verbal and emotional parry between Antwone and Commander Williams, the Navy psychologist Antwone had to see to determine if he was fit for military service, after yet another fight with a fellow sailor. What unfolds is a story that ranges from dramatic to humorous to heartbreaking, but in the end, is triumphant.
Antwone directed and produced the play in a sold-out special benefit presentation at the acclaimed Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica California, with captivating performances by Isaiah Washington (as "Antwone") and Keith David (as "Commander Williams"). Antwone was honored to have a multi-generational and multi cultural audience, that also gave the play a standing ovation.
A visiting processor at UCLA's School of Theater Film and Television, winter quarter 2012, Antwone has expanded his play and will direct the autobiographical piece featuring Graduate Actors from the Department of Theater at Macgowan Hall February 29th through March 3rd and March 14th through March 17th, 2012.
Antwone produced, wrote and directed the 2011 documentary film "THIS LIFE OF MINE", which chronicles the life of legendary Los Angeles business man Leon T. Garr, (98). Born in 1914, Leon Garr migrated from rural Ruston Louisiana to Los Angeles in the 1940's and through business rose to the position of Chairman of Founders National Bank, an institution he purchased using his own savings. The film will be featured in the Pan African Film Festival, February, 2012.
Antwone's most resent screenwriting project is Training Day 2 (Warner Brothers). Antwone made his film directing debut with the award winning thirty minute short film, "My Summer Friend", winner Best Short Film, Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival 2110.
Antwone also teaches in UCLA Extension Writers Program, the country's largest continuing education writing program.
About how far he has come, Antwone states, "I think back on a childhood full of longing for belonging, and see my life now as what I have created out of my dreams. An image comes to mind of Mrs. Brown at the orphanage in Cleveland, me sitting at her side, telling her, "You'll read about me someday." I was definitely dreaming then. With no evidence of that ever being possible, I clung to that preposterous vision and with the force of those dreams willed it and made it happen. Not because I needed to be famous, but because I needed a world that made me feel uninvited to be wrong, so I imagined myself free, I imagined myself loved, I imagined myself... as somebody."
Antwone no longer needs to imagine.
