Morgan J. Freeman

Morgan J. Freeman (born December 5, 1969) is an American film director. In 1997, his debut feature, Hurricane Streets, won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Early life and education Freeman was born and raised in Long Beach, California on December 5, 1969. He started making films as a teenager, basing them on the TV series Miami Vice. Freeman attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he worked for the campus newspaper, the Daily Nexus. While working for the Daily Nexus, his article entitled "Violence, arson continue in L.A." won Columbia Scholastic Press Association's 1993 Collegiate Gold Circle Award for news writing and third place in the California Intercollegiate Press Awards. He graduated in 1992 with a B.A. in film studies. He spent the following year in Amsterdam, working for Why Not Productions and studying film theory at the Sorbonne. He later entered New York University's Graduate Film Program where he graduated with a M.F.A. in 1996.