Artist Profile: For Reginald A. Hudlin ’83, How a Can Do Attitude Can Become a Career

Reginald “Reggie” A. Hudlin ’83 got his start at Katherine Dunham’s Center for Performing Arts in East St. Louis, Illinois. Today, Hudlin is one of the film industry's foremost producers and directors.

Hudlin always knew he wanted to study film, inspired by his eldest brother.

“The attitude is, well, if he can do it, I can do it,” Hudlin said in an interview with The Crimson.

At Harvard, Hudlin became a Visual Environmental Studies — now Arts, Film, and Visual Studies — concentrator, specializing in film. For his senior thesis, he broke the department’s tradition of documentary filmmaking, opting for a scripted short film titled “House Party.” Inspired by his upbringing, the film tells the adventures of a young man sneaking out of his house to go to a party, capturing what Hudlin saw as the essence of the young Black experience.

Hudlin’s knack for storytelling began long before college. His older brother, tired of hearing his ideas without seeing them materialize, eventually told Hudlin to put those ideas to paper. One Christmas, his brother gave him a blank book.

“He said, ‘Stop telling me your ideas and write them down,’” Hudlin said.

Hudlin took his brother’s advice to heart. Between his junior and senior year of college, while working in New York City to save money for his senior thesis film, he had a breakthrough. As he packed to return to Cambridge, “Bad Boy/Having a Party” by Luther Vangross played on the radio, and the idea for “House Party” came to him.

“I thought, 'Oh, that could be a really good video.' Then I said, 'That could actually be a film,'” Hudlin said.

That night, Hudlin wrote the entire script for “House Party.”

Hudlin recruited one of his roommates, Jacob H. Slichter ’83, to compose the score for the film and recruited actors from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and the local Cambridge area, even casting friends as extras.

After graduating, Hudlin formed a production company in New York City. Success did not come easily.

“There are a lot of barriers,” Hudlin said. “There’re the barriers of, literally, you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ve got to figure it out. Then there’s the barriers of resources. And then, there’s the barriers of an industry which didn't really believe that making movies about Black people was a particularly profitable area of business.”

Hudlin credits groundbreaking director Spike Lee for paving the way for Black filmmakers with “She’s Gotta Have It,” as the industry would see Lee and wonder: “Maybe there’s another person out there.”

With those shifting opportunities, Hudlin began writing scripts to fund his own creative projects, eventually turning “House Party” into a feature-length film. After working a series of day jobs and selling his third project, Hudlin had made enough money to pursue filmmaking full-time. He and his brother produced music videos for artists like Heavy D and the Boyz for Uptown Records while building their portfolio.

Eventually Hudlin left New York and moved to Hollywood where he stepped into roles as both producer and director. What Hudlin was doing, as he had throughout his career, “was very very new.” Hudlin began writing Marvel’s “Black Panther” comics in 2005 and became the president of Black Entertainment Television (BET) that same year. During his presidency, Hudlin created the BET Honors and BET Hip Hop Awards, and introduced hit series like “American Gangster” and “Sunday Best.”

Hudlin approaches his projects as a fan, driven by a sense of curiosity and social responsibility.

“Usually, my appetite is to do the thing that has never been done before,” Hudlin said.

One such groundbreaking project was “Boomerang,” a romantic comedy that broke barriers because of the primarily Black cast and storyline. Hudlin directed the film, and celebrated it for showcasing “the full spectrum of Black existence.” His filmography spans genres, including comedies like “Modern Family,” dramas like “Marshall,” science fiction pieces like “Cosmic Slop,” and westerns like “Django Unchained.”

“I want to play in all these different areas,” Hudlin said.

Innovation does not come without pushback, and to that Hudlin first becomes reflective. “Maybe I’m the problem,” he said.

He finds that sometimes the idea can be great but the presentation or the timing of a project can stop it from coming to fruition.

Luckily, the timing was just right for the award-winning film, “Django Unchained.” Hudlin’s involvement stemmed from his friendship with Quentin Tarantino. Hudlin had suggested that a movie about the experiences of enslaved African Americans needed to have the epic scope of “Spartacus.”

A year later, Tarantino handed Hudlin the script for “Django Unchained.” Hudlin read it and added notes, excited to see the movie. But Tarantino had different plans, and named Hudlin as a producer on the film. Over the next two years, Hudlin and the “Django Unchained” team, “knew we were doing something great.”

“He [Tarantino] goes, ‘You planted the seed. This is the tree,’” Hudlin said.

Hudlin also shared a close friendship with the late Chadwick Boseman, who Hudlin regards as one “of the best people in Hollywood.”

The two met at a gala after Boseman was cast as the Black Panther, and spent the whole night talking about it. Hudlin knew immediately that he wanted to work with Boseman and intended to cast him as one of Hudlin’s own heroes, Justice Thurgood Marshall in the film “Marshall.” Though Boseman was originally hesitant, Hudlin managed to convince him to take the role.

Beyond film, Hudlin has also left a mark on politics. He directed a short biographical documentary for Kamala Harris during the Democratic National Convention and even played a role in setting up Harris with her now husband Doug Emhoff — who was Hudlin’s lawyer.

Hudlin’s extensive career shows the power of purpose, innovation, and resilience. Hudlin’s upcoming documentary, “Number One on the Call Sheet,” is expected to release in March 2025.

“If – whether it is after hours or in your work, or whatever – you can try to make the world better, take the opportunity,” Hudlin said.

—Staff writer Dzifa Ackuayi can be reached at dzifa.ackuayi@thecrimson.com.