Reginald Hudlin (born December 15, 1961 in Centerville, Illinois) is a film director, producer, writer, and former president of BET Entertainment. Hudlin directed House Party, Boomerang, Bébé's Kids, The Great White Hype, Marshall, and served as one of the producers of Django Unchained. He was also writer of Black Panther for Marvel Comics. He was an executive producer for The Boondocks while it was under development at FOX. Though no longer involved by the time the show was picked up by [adult swim], the show was contractually obligated to continue to credit him as a producer.
Selected Filmography
Film
- House Party (1990) – Director, Writer, Actor as Burglar #1
- Boomerang (1992) – Director, Actor as Street Hustler
- Bébé's Kids (1992) – Executive Producer and Writer
- The Great White Hype (1996) – Director
- The Ladies Man (2000) – Director, Actor as Aloysius
- Django Unchained (2012) – Producer
- Marshall (2017) – Producer, Director
- Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022) – Executive Producer
- Candy Cane Lane (2023) - Director
Television
- City Of Angels (2000) – Director (1 episode)
- The Bernie Mac Show (2002–2005) – Producer (7 episodes), Director (11 episodes)
- Everybody Hates Chris (2005) – Director (1 episode)
- The Boondocks (2005–2008) – Executive Producer
- Raising the Bar (2009) – Director (1 episode)
- The Office (2009) – Director (1 episode)
- The Middle (2009) – Director (1 episode)
- Modern Family (2009–2010) – Director (2 episodes)
- Better Off Ted (2010) – Director (1 episode)
- Sons Of Tucson (2010) – Director (1 episode)
- Black Panther (2010) – Executive Producer (1 episode), Writer (1 episode), Actor as President (voice) in Episode #1.6
- Outsourced (2010–2011) – Director (2 episodes
- Psych (2010–2012) – Director (2 episodes)
- Friends with Benefits (2011) – Director (1 episode)
- Are We There Yet? (2012) – Director (3 episodes)
- Bones (2013) – Director (1 episode)
- Marry Me (2014–2015) – Director (2 episodes)
- Murder in the First (2014–2015) – Director (3 episodes)
- New Girl (2015) – Director (1 episode)
- Telenovela (2015) – Director (1 episode)
- Heartbeat (2016) – Director (1 episode)
- Black Monday (2019) – Director (2 episodes)
- The Last OG (2019) – Director (3 episodes)
Tropes associated with his works:
- Fantastic Racism: He once wrote a comic where Black Panther saves a bunch of Skrulls from some other Skrulls, in a continuation of an old Fantastic Four comic. Half the Skrulls were living as black people, mainly Civil Rights activists from the 60's (with a Malcolm X skrull and a Black Panther movement), and the other half were 30's style white Gangsters, persecuting the "Black" Skrulls.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: A parody of Hudlin appears in two episodes of The Boondocks' second season, as a sellout BET executive named Weggie Rudlin, with a Harvard degree - similar to Hudlin's real role at BET.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Doctor Doom, Ulysses Klaw and arguably any non-BP character.
- Running the Asylum: Hudlin Retconned the fight between Captain America and T'Chaka from a fight of two characters that proves to be equal and shows mutual respect for each other turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- He did the same when he did a Retcon on the first meeting of T'Challa and Storm. Where originally Storm had actually saved T'Challa and they parted almost immediately after, Hudlin had T'Challa save Storm and her swoon over his manly prowess.
- Sock Puppet: Has been caught using them to defend his Black Panther.
- Token Romance/Token Minority Couple: Storm and Black Panther
- The Worf Effect: His retcon of the fight between T'Chaka and Captain America during World War II went from being a fight between equals that made both characters look good into a Curb-Stomp Battle where T'Chaka easily defeats a Type II Eaglelander of a Captain America.
