TV Production

JD Walker is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences inaugural #AcademyGold Program. Originally trained as an actress and a journalist, Walker is a producer, screenwriter, and director. Walker won the  Sundance Film Festival Pitching Contest for her second feature, a biopic about Oscar Micheaux, the first major Black director to write, direct, and produce feature length films in 1918. Walker's development on her Oscar Micheaux feature film has been chronicled in IndieWire (Shadow and Act), The San Francisco Bayview, and San Francisco Weekly. Her first feature script, "The Postwoman" earned Honorable Mention in the Sundance Table Read My Screenplay Contest.

In her younger years, Walker was labeled a "gifted child" and took Honors classes all throughout elementary, junior, and high school. In high school, she starred in and directed talent shows and won several awards as a writer and an actress. During her junior year in high school, she won the California Forensic  Association State Championship in Dramatic Interpretation for her rendition of August Wilson's play, "Fences." In college, she remained on the Honor Roll and Dean's List every semester, having earned her recognition with The Golden Key National Honor Society. 

Walker graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Theater Arts from San Francisco State University , where she studied in the Black Studies Department and performed in leading roles with The African American Shakespeare Co. and The San Francisco Mime Troupe. At San Francisco State, Walker received the President's Alumni Scholarship. She was accepted into USC School of Cinematic Arts and won the prestigious George Lucas Scholarship for her studies in the MFA Program in TV and Film. The scholarship award  assisted in covering her full tuition at USC. Walker was also offered a full-ride to Howard University, where she finished both her M.A. and Ph.D. course work (with "distinction") at age 26. While at Howard, Walker self-published two books, worked as a radio host, and wrote cover stories for the Black press. Walker always knew she wanted to write, especially screenplays, and spent much of her time in DC honing her craft, serving, for 7 years, as a freelance journalist, writing feature stories on Black poets and writers while serving as a photojournalist for the The New York Amsterdam News, The Washington Informer, The Tennessee Tribune, and Heart & Soul magazine to name a few.

An extensive background in publishing and journalism, Walker also served as a book buyer, hosting literary panels for authors. She's also served as a Marketing and Editorial Assistant for a University Press. While in D.C., Walker received scholarship awards for her writing from poets E. Ethelbert Miller and Sonia Sanchez, as well as from Gregory Allen Howard (Ali, Remember the Titans) from whom she took a screenwriting class. She toured with Sonia Sanchez, as her personal assistant, and performed her poetry live at literary conferences. Walker also received a National Visionary Heritage fellowship award from Camille O. Cosby, where she was trained to perform documentary work on historic elders over the age of 70. Walker's work with Cosby is now archived in The Smithsonian and a book called "A Wealth of Wisdom" (Atria Books 2004).

Walker is a member of The Blackout for Human Rights Film Collective and is currently producing nationwide shows for Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station/Creed), filmmaker and co-founder of the collective along with Ava DuVernay (Selma) and more as members. Most recently, Walker produced #MLKNow in Harlem starring Oscar Winner Octavia Spencer (Fruitvale Station/The Help), Tessa Thompson (Selma/Dear White People), Actor and Comedian Chris Rock, Tony Award Winner Anika Noni Rose, Actor Andre Holland, Adepero Odune (Pariah/12 Years a Slave), Actor and Civil Rights icon Harry Belafonte and more. She also co-produced #JusticeforFlint with her outstanding United Blackout team. She wrote and produced scripts as well as short videos for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): Know Your Rights Mobile Justice app.

Her work has screened at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles and at numerous film festivals around the country, including but not limited to Frameline, The Queer Women of Color Film Festival, The Boston LGBT Film Festival, Out in Film, The Reel Sistas of the African Diaspora Film Festival, The New York African Diaspora Film Festival, and The African American Film Festival in Portland, Oregon, to name a few, where it won best short. Walker's first short that she wrote, produced, and directed was called "The Postwoman." She later produced "The Young Oscar Micheaux," a short film in advance of her biopic on Oscar Micheaux, which is co-produced by Preston L. Holmes (Birth of a Nation, Malcolm X, Hustle & Flow, Best Man Holiday) and Monica Cooper of Make it Happen Entertainment.

Walker is currently finishing her screenplays. As early as she can remember, Walker has been writing and directing her own shorts. Her love for literature and poetry continued throughout her college years and greatly impacted her storytelling as well as her quest to bring the untold stories of African Americans to the silver screen.