Ernest R. Dickerson

Ernest R. Dickerson is an American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter who studied at New York University with Spike Lee. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he shot Lee's student thesis Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), which won a Student Academy Award. He served as cinematographer on Lee's She's Gotta Have It (1986), Do the Right Thing (1989), and Malcolm X (1992). He shot music videos for Miles Davis, Anita Baker, and Bruce Springsteen, and his first professional film as director of photography was John Sayles' Brother from Another Planet (1984). His first feature as director was the crime drama Juice (1992), and he went on to direct horror and thriller films including Never Die Alone (2004), Bones (2001), Bulletproof (1996), and Demon Knight (1995). For television he directed episodes of The Wire, The Walking Dead, Treme, Bosch, and Once Upon a Time; his Treme episode won him an NAACP Image Award for directing in a dramatic series.