Uzo (filmmaker)

He optioned the film rights and struggled for years on an adaptation of Simon Mawer's 1999 novel, Mendel's Dwarf. After years of languishing in what he calls, "Hollywood's development hell", the option elapsed and was subsequently sold to Barbra Streisand's company.

Uzo's Walls & Bridges is the story of a white nun Ellen Landress Bowkett who leaves her Order to marry a black painter Mark D. Kennerly who is blinded in a random act of violence. While developing the script, Uzo spent two years painting the large size Miro-esque murals featured in the film. The film premiered October 14, 1992, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington, DC. It was one of two films representing the United States at the Sixth Festival of the Americas, sponsored by the Organization of American States and the American Film Institute. He is considered the first African-born person to direct an American feature film.

Uzo was married to a white Long Island native from Wading River in the 1980s and divorced in 1990s; he has two daughters, Tyne and Anya.

Uzo (born August 1957) is a Nigerian-American filmmaker and graphic artist. He has made two feature films, Walls & Bridges (1992) and Better Than Ever (1997). After losing the option to the film rights on the novel Mendel's Dwarf, after many years of work, he is currently working on a third film, Sophie's Wish.