Omowale Akintunde

Who is Omowale Akintunde?

Omowale Akintunde is an African-American author, film director and academic with an interest in the areas of education, race, and diversity. He has been the Chair of the Department of Black Studies at University of Nebraska at Omaha since 2008 and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education. In 2010 he received an Emmy Award for his feature-length documentary film An Inaugural Ride to Freedom. Akintunde also wrote and directed the film Wigger which follows the life of an "impoverished white teen with a neo-Nazi father and a black best friend," who adopts African American life and culture. The film originated from a 30 minute version which was Akintunde's thesis film at the New York Film Academy in 2007, and was re-shot in Omaha, Nebraska in 2009. The full-length feature film premiered in April 2010.