By Maame Takyi – Amma Asante, a British screenwriter, actress and film director was inducted into The Academy Awards, known as the Oscars, in June 2016 soon after the Oscars So White controversy concerning the lack of diversity in Oscar-nominated films. Amma’s inclusion is expected to improve diversity in the industry.
Amma wrote and directed the film titled ‘A Way of Life’. Asante was born and raised in London to Ghanaian parents; her mother ran a deli and her father was an accountant. Asante went to the Barbara Speake stage school in Acton, London, where she learned to dance and act. She began a career as a young actress, and appearing in a British drama ‘Grange Hill’. Asante has appeared in many different British dramas such as, ‘Just Say No’, ‘Desmond’s (Channel 4), ‘Birds of a feather’ and many more. Asante also starred as a presenter on a Children’s channel for a year. When Asante was a teenager, she left acting and went on to screenwriting with a development deal with Chrysalis. She owned a production company, Tantrum Film, and produced and wrote two series for BBC 2 drama entitled ‘Brother and sister’.
‘A United Kingdom’ is a 2016 British biographical romantic drama film directed by Amma Asante and written by Guy Hibbert.
The film entitled ‘A united Kingdom’ is based on a true story of an heir to the throne of Bechuanaland, Seretse Khama of the bamangwato tribe, who came to London to study law after the Second World War. Seretse Khama met a middle – class English woman (Ruth Williams) whom he marries and became the first president of the independent state of Botswana. The story is now director Amma Asante’s newest movie ‘A United Kingdom’, which on released in UK cinemas since 25th of November 2016.
