Exclusive: Nzingha Stewart on directing episodes of Prime Video’s Daisy Jones and the Six
Currently playing on on Prime Video is Daisy Jones and the Six, which is based on the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Daisy Jones & The Six is a musical-drama series detailing the rise and precipitous fall of a renowned rock band. The highly-anticipated limited series premiered on March 3, with new episodes released every Friday through March 24, exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
The final two episodes were directed by Nzingha Stewart.
The series stars Riley Keough as Daisy Jones, Sam Claflin as Billy Dunne, Camila Morrone as Camila Alvarez Dunne, Will Harrison as Graham Dunne, Suki Waterhouse as Karen Sirko, Josh Whitehouse as Eddie Roundtree, Sebastian Chacon as Warren Rojas, Nabiyah Be as Simone Jackson, and Tom Wright as Teddy Price, with a special guest appearance by Timothy Olyphant as Rod Reyes.
In 1977, Daisy Jones & The Six were on top of the world. Fronted by two charismatic lead singers—Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin)—the band had risen from obscurity to fame. And then, after a sold-out show at Chicago's Soldier Field, they called it quits. Now, decades later, the band members finally agree to reveal the truth. This is the story of how an iconic band imploded at the height of its powers.
James Ponsoldt directed the first five episodes and serves as an executive producer, Nzingha Stewart directed four of the remaining episodes, and Graham directed one.
For Stewart, the NYU alum has been doing a lot more with the projects she’s taken on lately. Besides the four episodes she directed for Daisy Jones, she’s also a co-executive producer. Prior to that, she held a similar position (5 episodes and Co-EP) with the Netflix series From Scratch, which starred Zoe Saldana and Danielle Deadwyler. In recent times, she’s directed episodes for Netflix’s Inventing Anna and Maid, Showtime’s Black Monday, and Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere. She’s also helmed the films Tall Girl and Love By The 10th Date.
Stewart started out directing music videos for numerous artists including Erykah Badu, 50 Cent, Common, Jay-Z, and Missy Elliott. So having to work on a musical series such as Daisy Jones where she’s directing scenes of a concert and several performances, everything is coming full circle. Stewart will soon be directing an episode of Cross, the series which is based on James Patterson’s Alex Cross novels and starring Aldis Hodge.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales caught up with Stewart as she spoke about her experience on Daisy Jones and the Six.
