BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1966, Antoine Fuqua began his career in the field of filmmaking by directing popular music videos for famous musical celebrities like Coolio and Prince during the early-to-mid 1990s. When his vision and style were finally recognized within the Hollywood scene, Fuqua was quick to leap into feature films. In 1998, Fuqua made his directorial debut with the action thriller The Replacement Killers, produced by acclaimed action director John Woo and featuring international superstar Chow Yun Fat in his Hollywood debut. The film was only moderately successful, garnering mixed reviews and a disappointing box office performance, but achieved noticability for its innovative style and vision, reminiscent of old Hong Kong films.

Fuqua's follow-up project, the action-comedy Bait (2000), also performed unsuccessfully. The film underperformed at the box office and received some genuinely horrendous reviews upon release, yet this misstep in his carrer helped pave the way for another film project: the Denzel Washington starrer Training Day (2001). This slight departure from his previous  "action-oriented" films only show how he is willing to bring his unique style to other genres. Day became an instant critical and box office success and won an Academy Award for Washington's outstanding performance, but above all else it proved Fuqua's box office capability and soon offers began rolling in. Recently, he returned to the action genre with the Bruce Willis thriller Tears of the Sun (2003) and took the helm of the Jerry Bruckheimer production of King Arthur (2004) which is expected to be one of the summer's biggest box office draws.

FILMOGRAPHY

TRIVIA

AMERICAN GANGSTER (2005) KING ARTHUR (2004) TEARS OF THE SUN (2003) TRAINING DAY (2001) BAIT (2000) THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS (1998)

SPOUSE: Lela Rochon (April 1999 -- PRESENT). - Directed Music Videos for Coolio ("Gangsta's Paradise") and Prince ("The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"). - His first directorial effort was on a 1992 episode of Inside Out IV, entitled "The Thief" and appeared as himself in Intimate Portrait: Lela Rochon.