BIO

Desmond Hall – bio

I was born in Jamaica, West Indies and moved to Jamaica, Queens.

I graduated Marquette University with a BA in Journalism and was selected for the “Who’s Who of American College Students.”

I’ve written and directed an HBO feature movie, “A Day in Black and White” which was nominated for the Gordon Parks Award. I’ve also written and directed a full-length stage play, “Stockholm, Brooklyn” that won the Audience Award at the Downtown Theater Festival at the Cherry Lane theater. The play was also picked for the Public Theater’s New Works Series.

For two years, I worked as a high school biology and English teacher in East New York, Brooklyn. In this period of my life I also counseled teenage ex-cons after their release from Rikers Island Correctional Institution.

As an advertising creative director, I’ve written many TV campaigns, two Superbowl commercials and won multiple awards while running the creative side of Spike Lee’s advertising agency.

While working in the advertising and film industry I’ve served on the board of the Partnership for a Drug Free America, the Advertising Council, judged the One Show, Addys and the NYC Downtown Film Festival. I’ve also been named one of Variety magazine’s Top 50 Creatives to Watch.

I’ve completed Grub Street’s Novel Incubator class, a yearlong intensive program where I work-shopped YOUR CORNER DARK, a novel inspired by the murders of my uncles back in Jamaica. The novel has been bought by Simon and Schuster and is due out fall 2020.