YOUR NAME IS KWANZA?
Kwanza Nicole Gooden is a Caribbean-American writer/director based in Los Angeles with credits at Netflix, Amazon Prime, BET Networks, Black Love Inc/Confluential Films, Merry Jane Media, BuzzFeed, USA Today and more. She is called to share nuanced, evocative, and socially conscious stories through both narrative and documentary filmmaking.
Her latest project, entitled unalive., which Kwanza wrote, directed, and stars in, is a dark comedy short film that explores themes of suicide, mental health in Hollywood, and generational family trauma. Set to premiere in the 2026 festival circuit, unalive. follows an emerging yet secretly depressed actress and her dysfunctional Jamaican family as they navigate multiple mental health crises at once. Inspired by a personal experience, through the film, Kwanza hopes to bring more advocacy and attention to Black Mental Health.
In 2022, Kwanza directed her first major studio project: a 3-part doc-series for ComcastNBCU called, The Black Beauty Effect, which chronicles and celebrates the often overlooked contributions made to the beauty industry by black communities. Kwanza also produced and edited the series which was acquired by Netflix in 2023 and is now streaming.
In 2021, Kwanza was approached by Ventureland, Indeed, and Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad to direct the Rising Voices Impact Film, a short documentary that journeys with10 BIPOC filmmakers through the inaugural Rising Voices program, and highlights the necessity for diversity and inclusion within the film industry. It was showcased at Tribeca 2021 and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2018, Kwanza co-wrote and directed Token, a short film about a young black girl struggling to fit in with her white surroundings, loosely based off Kwanza’s childhood. That same year, Token screened in NYC and won Best Director at the Oscar-qualifying Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival. Token was also a semifinalist at Los Angeles Cinefest, an official selection at Brooklyn Women’s Film Festival, and in 2019, was awarded Best Drama Short at the Windy City Film Festival in Chicago.
Raised by a Jamaican family in the suburbs of Washington, DC, Kwanza’s love for storytelling was inherited from her late great-grandmother, Iris Scott, who bewildered young Kwanza with tales of island life. After gaining her B.A. in Film and Video Studies from George Mason University in 2013, Kwanza drove cross-country to Los Angeles in 2015 to further pursue her filmmaking dreams.
As a multi-hyphenate filmmaker, she has created a vast catalog of work, and in 2022, Kwanza founded her own production company – GOODENTERTAINMENT, LLC – where she’s gained clients like Indeed, Represent Justice, Color of Change, and Amazon Music. She loves hiking and hot yoga and Frank Ocean and her favorite color is red.