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John Singleton: South Central
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Son of mortgage broker Danny Singleton and pharmaceutical company sales executive Sheila Ward and raised in separate households by his unmarried parents, John Singleton attended the Filmic Writing Program at USC after graduating from high school in 1986. While studying there, he won three writing awards from the university, which lead to a contract with Creative Artists Agency during his sophomore year. Columbia Pictures bought his script for Boyz n the Hood (1991) and budgeted it at $7 million. Singleton notes that much of the story comes from his own experiences in South Central LA and credits his parents with keeping him off the street.
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As a follow-up, Singleton helmed the 1992 Michael Jackson video "Remember the Time", featuring Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson in an Egyptian setting. His second feature "Poetic Justice" (1993) was a modern romance set in turbulent South Central L.A. that paired singers-turned-actors Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur. While the film received a warm reception at the box office, critics were less than enthusiastic. "Higher Learning" (1995), which charted relations on a multi-racial college campus, did over $13 million at the box office its opening weekend and eventually earned close to $39 million. As with "Boys N the Hood", both films examined contemporary relationships set against everyday violence and while each started out strongly, the endings seemed forced and disjointed.
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John Singleton was born in 1968, in south-central Los Angeles. Raised in the same type of neighborhood depicted in Boyz N the Hood, Singleton spent his childhood years shuttling between his unmarried parents. "My parents didn't have a lot of money," he told Time. "I used to steal little stuff, like candy, toys, and Players magazines, but I never got into anything too rough." Part of the reason he stayed clean was the attention his parents paid to him, and part of that attention, which ultimately influenced his career choice, was his father's taking him to see movies. By the time he was nine years old, Singleton decided he was going to make motion pictures.
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