In April 2017, The Fate of the Furious crossed $1.2 billion worldwide, making F. Gary Gray the first African American director to make a billion-dollar film. Seven years earlier, his Straight Outta Compton had set a record of its own, becoming the highest-grossing musical biopic in American history at the time.
Felix Gary Gray was born on July 17, 1969, in New York City and raised in South Los Angeles. He has described laying out a plan in high school: work in the film industry as an assistant and direct a first feature by 45. He started immediately after high school, as a camera operator on BET programs, and took a bit part in the 1989 comedy Major League along the way.
Music videos gave him his first directing work. After a video for WC and the Maad Circle, a group that included a former classmate, he directed Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” in 1993, a literal adaptation of the song’s lyrics. Videos for Dr. Dre, Cypress Hill, Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson,” TLC’s “Waterfalls” and Queen Latifah followed, establishing him as one of hip-hop and R&B’s go-to visual storytellers.
At 26, Gray directed his first feature, Friday (1995), a comedy co-written by Ice Cube and starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. Set It Off (1996), with Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah, showed he could carry a drama. The Negotiator (1998), with Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, earned him Best Film and Best Director honors at the Acapulco Film Festival. He then moved between scales: The Italian Job (2003), which topped $100 million domestically; A Man Apart; Be Cool; and Law Abiding Citizen (2009).
Straight Outta Compton (2015), the biographical drama about N.W.A, grossed more than $200 million worldwide and set the record for the best opening by an African American director. The Fate of the Furious set another, posting a $532.5 million global opening weekend, then the largest ever. He followed with Men in Black: International (2019) and Lift (2024), a Netflix heist film with Kevin Hart.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored Gray with the 2,665th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 28, 2019, in the category of Motion Pictures. His honors also include the Ivan Dixon Award of Achievement from the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center and a Pioneer Director award from the Pan-African Film and Arts Festival.
