Jordan Peele won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his film “Get Out,” making him the first black screenwriter to ever win the award.
Peele is just the fourth black screenwriter nominated for Best Original Screenplay, following Suzanne de Passe for “Lady Sings the Blues,” Spike Lee for “Do the Right Thing” and John Singleton for “Boyz n the Hood.”
“I want to dedicate this to all the people who raised my voice and let me make this movie,” Peele said upon accepting his Oscar.
To clarify, Peele is the first winner in the original screenplay category. Barry Jenkins and Tarrell Alvin McCraney won in the Adapted Screenplay category last year, and Geoffrey Fletcher was the first African American to win a screenplay award for “Precious.” John Ridley also won for adapting “12 Years a Slave.”
“I knew enough working with directors to know that the director is first and foremost a storyteller,” Peele told TheWrap’s Steve Pond, saying he knew he had to direct after completing the first draft of “Get Out.” “I knew the movie would resonate, but I didn’t know that people would still be talking about it.”
“Get Out” is a hybrid of a horror and comedy about the awkward and tense drama spawning when a black man travels to meet his white girlfriend’s parents and family.
Peele is also nominated for an Oscar Best Director and is just the fifth black directing nominee. On Saturday, Peele won Best Director at the Film Independent Spirit awards, but he lost to Greta Gerwig for Best Screenplay.