Liberian-American filmmaker Cheryl Dunye was BOTD in 1966. Born in Monrovia, Liberia, her family emigrated to the United States when she was a child, settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She studied political theory at Michigan State University, enrolling in filmmaking programmes at Temple University, Philadelphia and Rutgers University. Her early short films, which she named “Dunyementaries”, chronicled her experience as a Black lesbian filmmaker, blending narrative and documentary film techniques. She wrote, directed and starred in her 1996 feature debut The Watermelon Woman, playing a filmmaker attempting to make a film about the history (and erasure) of Black lesbians in cinema. Premiering at the Berlinale, it won the Teddy Award for best LGBTQ feature film. Following its US release, Dunye and the film were attacked by conservative US politicians as part of a protest about National Endowment of the Arts funding of LGBTQ themed projects. A landmark in Black and queer filmmaking, it was included in Sight & Sound‘s 2022 list of the 250 Greatest Films of All Time. Her next feature, the 2001 TV film Stranger Inside, profiled the experiences of Black lesbians in the US prison system. In recent years, she has directed episodes of TV dramas Queen Sugar, Dear White People and The Umbrella Academy. Dunye lives in Oakland, California with her wife Karina Hodoyan and their two children.