Kevin Willmott

Kevin Willmott won an Academy Award and the BAFTA the British Academy award for co-writing with Spike Lee the feature film, Blackkklansman. The film also won the Grand Prix at the Cannes film Festival. He co-wrote and is the Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed film, Chi-Raq also directed by Spike Lee.

Award winning Films written and or directed by Willmott include Ninth Street, CSA -Confederate States of America, The Battle for Bunker Hill, The Only Good Indian, Jayhawkers and Destination Planet Negro.

Documentaries directed by Willmott include: From Separate to Equal: The Creation of Truman Medical Center, Gordon Parks Elementary, Fast Break: The Legendary Coach John McLendon, and William Allen White: What’s the Matter with Kansas, No Place Like Home: The Struggle Against Hate in Kansas and The Heroic True-Life Adventures of Alvin Brooks.

He co-wrote with Spike Lee, Da Five Bloods for Netflix. Willmott co-wrote with Trai Byers and directed the critically acclaimed film, The 24th about the Houston Riot of 1917. The film was nominated for an NAACP Image Award .

In 2025, he co-wrote and directed The Bard about George Moses Horton, the first African American who was published in the United States. He was an enslaved poet in North Carolina. The film stars David Gyasi on The Diplomat and Julia Schlaepfer of 1923 and David Strathairn of Goodnight and Goodluck. It will premiere sometime next year.

Willmott grew up in Junction City, Kansas and attended Marymount College r. eceiving his BA in Drama. After graduation, he returned home, working as a peace and civil rights activist and created two Catholic Worker shelters for the homeless and forcing the integration of several long-standing segregated institutions. He attended New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, receiving several writing awards and his M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing.

Willmott works full time as a screenwriter and director and is a Professor