When the Oprah Winfrey Network series “Queen Sugar” debuted in 2016, Cierra Glaude worked as a first team production assistant, an early riser who is responsible for keeping track of the actors on set.
“I’m basically their chaperone, their sister, girlfriend, mom, aunt,” she explained. “I know all of their dietary restrictions. I get them through the day, basically.”
In two short years, it marked the third time the young filmmaker had worked with Emmy winner Ava DuVernay, who created “Queen Sugar” and also hired Glaude to work on the Oscar-nominated 2014 film “Selma” as well as her CBS pilot “For Justice.” Director Cierra Glaude (center) with actors Kofi Siriboe (right) and Ethan Hutchison as they set up a scene for “Queen Sugar."
On “Selma,” Glaude was an additional PA working with background actors as they marched on the highway from Selma to Montgomery. She was the director’s assistant on “For Justice,” where Glaude admits she “made some mistakes that I learned really quickly from.”
And on “Queen Sugar,” she continued as a first team PA for season two and was promoted to the writer’s room during season three.
Now she’s in the director’s chair — literally.
Cierra Glaude dropped out of college to work on set with Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Ava DuVernay.
Glaude, 29, has directed three episodes for the show’s fifth season, which premieres Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.
“I’ll just be walking around the house like, ‘Wait a minute.’ I find a mirror and go, ‘You’re a director,’” Glaude said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It does feel like such a dream. Sometimes I’m like, ‘I can’t believe this is all happening still.’ It’s really lovely.”
“Queen Sugar” follows three siblings from Louisiana who manage a sugarcane farm left to them after their father died and is based off the 2014 novel of the same name. Its debut season won outstanding drama series at the 2017 NAACP Image Awards.
During the first season, DuVernay encouraged Glaude to shoot and produce her own material so she could one day direct on her set.
Glaude made her directorial debut in 2017 with the short “Last Looks,” which starred “Queen Sugar” and “True Blood” actor Rutina Wesley and aired on Issa Rae’s YouTube channel. Glaude was selected by Emmy winner Lena Waithe for the AT&T Hello Labs Filmmaker Mentorship Program, for which she directed the short “Spilt Milk,” starring “Orange Is the New Black” actor Dascha Polanco.
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