George Tillman Jr

Born: c. 1968
Where: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Listing Martin Scorsese, Gordon Parks and Spike Lee as influences, writer/director George first became inspired to make films of his own after seeing Cooley High, a Chicago-based film directed by Michael Schultz.

He made short, experimental video projects as a teenager before establishing himself as a filmmaker of original vision with an award-winning 30 minute short, Paula.

Bolstered by that success, he wrote and directed the feature Scenes For The Soul, financing it with £100,000 which he and producer Robert Teitel raised through a group of Chicago investors.

When he and Teitel drove to L.A., they sold the film to Savoy Pictures for £700,000, though Savoy's subsequent bankruptcy prevented its release.

Inspired by the Sunday dinners prepared by his grandmother, George wrote a script that Tracey E Edmonds and her husband Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds felt would be the perfect choice for their new production company's feature debut.

The result, Soul Food, proved to be a sleeper hit, but George soon followed as director for Men Of Honor.