Donald Glover in the Industries

Word Count: 1470

Introduction

This biography discusses Donald Glover achievements before discussing his lasting impact. Later, I will posit my professional reflections. This is an online biography about a person I consider to be a crucial figure in my industry: media. The name of this key figure is Donald Glover. Although not even 40, he has significantly impacted the film and media industry as an actor, writer, producer, director, musician and comedian. This figure is relevant to me because he comes from a humble upbringing and is of African American descent.

Biographical Information

Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino, was born on September 25th, 1983. He was born at Edwards Airforce base in California, where his dad was stationed. He is an American Actor, comedian, singer, rapper, writer, director and producer. Donald Glover grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a predominantly black area, where he grew up in poverty and faced racism his whole life. Glover attended Avondale High School and DeKalb School of the Arts and was voted “Most Likely to Write for The Simpsons” in his high school yearbook. After graduating high school, he attended New York University Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Dramatic Writing. While at university, Glover began experimenting with music and joined a sketch comedy group, Derrick Comedy (Gold, 2009).

Glover was involved in numerous viral videos and performances in and around New York. In 2006 Glover caught the attention of producer David Miner after Glover sent writing samples that he had written for The Simpsons. This caught the eye of Tina Fey, a producer at NBC (Stanley,2009). She was instrumental in hiring Glover for a new sitcom, 30 Rock, for which he remained a writer for three seasons. Unusually for a writer, he even made several cameos on the show(Friend,2018). For Glover’s work on the third season of 30 Rock, he and his co-writers were presented an award for Best Comedy Series by the Writers Guild of America.

Glover left 30 Rock in 2009 to move to Los Angeles with his Derrick Comedy team where they produced their first film, Mystery Team, which premiered at the Sundance festival in August 2009 (Guerrasio, 2009). Later, he went on to portray Troy Barnes in the sitcom Community from 2009 to 2014. Glover left the show during season five after only appearing in five episodes. Glover left of his own free will and revealed in an Instagram post that his reasons were personal and allowed him to pursue other projects and be independent. From then on, he had a series of reasonably prominent acting roles. He starred in many successful films, including Magic Mike XXL, The Martian and the Lazarus Effect. He had the opportunity to play a key character, Lando Calrissian, in the legendary sci-fi franchise Star Wars. He also voiced adult Simba in The Lion King and starred in and produced the short film Guava Island.

Glover then created and produced the hit TV comedy-drama Atlanta where he would also portray the main character. Atlanta, the FX series, depicts the life and struggles of African Americans in Atlanta. Atlanta went on to win two primetime Emmy awards and two golden globes (Anon,2023).

Lasting Impact

Throughout his career, Donald Glover has demonstrated drive, and versatility across various media formats and skill in envisioning scenarios, storylines and characters (Bustard, 2022). At the start of his music career, he released the songs “Eat Your Vegetables” and “F*ck Your Blog” through his website. His second studio album, Because the Internet, debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 chart. Glover directed and produced a short film, ‘Clapping for the Wrong Reasons’, which stars himself, Chance the Rapper, and Danielle Fishel to promote the album. While performing as Childish Gambino, Glover released several albums and mixtapes detailing life experiences and his thoughts on the social injustice of being black in America (Vogel, 2018).

His hit single ‘This is America’ debuted at number one on The Hot 100 and received critical praise for depicting the killings of unarmed black men (Mclntyre,2018). The theme of this single was gun violence in America against the black population and the brutality of the police. Many believe this song extensively highlighted the generalised racism black Americans face daily(Showers, 2015).

Although Donald Glover’s music mainly focuses on black consciousness and expressing his life through his music, he has also made soul music like “Redbone”, which has been featured on many radio platforms for its catchy beat.

Donald Glover has played many significant roles during his career as an actor(Pantoja, 2019). The format of the TV show Atlanta was unique as it rejected the standard television style. It was very visually appealing with a dynamic plotline. Atlanta is a TV series with a prominent black cast depicting the reality of being an impoverished black person in Atlanta and how life can always change for the better. Atlanta shows the younger black generation that wealth and fame are not always good and that you can achieve your dreams with hard work.

In 2015, Glover played a minor but pivotal role in Ridley Scott’s The Martian. Most of the film is about the actor Matt Damon playing the astronaut Mark Watney, who is accidentally stranded on Mars. The rest of the story focuses on the crew that left Mark Watney behind, believing him to be deceased, and the NASA team who discovered he was not and are trying to figure out how to bring him back to earth.

Glover’s character Rich Purnell who works in astrodynamics at the Jet propulsion lab (JPL) in California, works out a way to enable the crew to rescue Watney and come back to earth safely. Although this character only had a total screen time of seven minutes, the ability of his character to come up with a solution was pivotal to the film’s plotline. This made him the unsung hero of the film.

Purnell’s role in this film, rather than being a sub-servant black character as in many other films, is a crucial character with a pivotal role. The paradox of him having so little screen time and yet having such a significant impact on the film’s story is essential because it draws on real-life parallels when you have people who are often ignored, but those people have a lot to offer (Andrews,2012). Because of all of the above, he has and will have a lasting impact.

Professional Reflections

Glover’s wide world success is not just as a pop artist but as other things (writer, producer, actor, director, comedian and creator). Using the internet and its different platforms, he has expressed himself dynamically, which follows in the footsteps of other artists such as Eddie Murphy, Will Smith and Steve Harvey, who are geniuses when it comes to adapting to different careers. Glover has produced and directed many films and TV shows that have helped his career grow. Some notable TV shows he worked on are Community and The Simpsons, where he was a writer and actor for both.

At the beginning of Glover’s music career, he was insecure about the message his music would portray. Glover follows the path of artists like Kayne and Drake, not by copying their style but by imitating their honesty and introspection in music. Furthermore, he has also used his fame to make deals with leading companies like Adidas and Converse. Glover takes a comprehensive approach to his work and puts his hands on other areas of the media industry.

Donald Glover has the unique ability to use different forms of expression to grow his career. His net worth of 40 million announced by Forbes Magazine reflects his ability to manoeuvre through various industries. His net worth is more than likely to increase in the future. His comedy often draws on his previous experiences and upbringing, particularly where it leads to his hardships. Nevertheless, his ability to reflect on his past experiences and conjure laughs makes him unique. Glover’s career path to date offers insights and lessons on the fact that, as an individual, you should never limit yourself and that it is okay to use different forms of expression.

Conclusion

Glover’s drive for uniqueness and individualism has made him a success. His need to seek out different platforms is what got him this far. Glover teaches others that to be successful, you should not limit yourself. He has made it this far by being different and using his integrity to make a name for himself. As an African American, Glover has surpassed the stereotype of just being seen as a hip pop artist. Glover teaches that you should seek out your passions to succeed. Glover comes from an impoverished background. His rise to success positively impacts the African American Community and teaches the younger generation to follow in his footsteps.

References

(Andrews 2012, sec. Many Black adolescents have been empowered to succeed academically partly because of their awareness of racist practices in education and society. This empowerment to succeed in the face of racism is also seen as resiliency.)

Andrews, D. J. C., 2012. Black achievers’ experiences with racial spotlighting and ignoring in a predominantly White high school. Teachers College record (1970) [online], 114 (10), 1–46. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/016146811211401002.

Bustard, A., 2022. Donald Glover unveils new balance sneaker collab with short film [online]. HipHopDX. Available from: https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.71575/title.donald-glover-new-balance-rc30-sneaker-collaboration [Accessed 28 Feb 2023].

Fabian, R., 2017. Donald Glover makes history with Emmy win [online]. Grammy.com. Available from: https://www.grammy.com/news/donald-glover-makes-history-emmy-win [Accessed 28 Feb 2023].

Friend, T., 2018. Donald Glover can’t save you. New Yorker (New York, N.Y.: 1925) [online], 26 February 2018. Available from: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/donald-glover-cant-save-you [Accessed 28 Feb 2023].

(Gold 2009, sec. Having carved out some cyberturf of its own, Derrick Comedy, a young comedy group with dozens of video shorts already on its Web site (derrickcomedy.com) and YouTube, is now reaching for the biggest screens.)

Gold, D. M., 2009. College humor on the big screen. The New York times [online], 4 December 2009. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/movies/04mystery.html [Accessed 28 Feb 2023].

(Guerrasio 2009, sec. Our movie Mystery Team is the first full-length feature film by DERRICK Comedy, a sketch-comedy group I’ve been a part of for four years now.)

Guerrasio, J., 2009. “MYSTERY TEAM” director, Dan Eckman [online]. Filmmaker Magazine | Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources. Available from: https://filmmakermagazine.com/261-mystery-team-director-dan-eckman/ .

(McIntyre 2018, sec. In the video, the singer dances through a chaotic warehouse, jumps onto cars and even murders several people by gunning them down. It makes for a difficult to watch several minutes, but it also requires several replays in order to catch the subtleties and take it all in, and that has helped the artist collect an impressive stream count.)

McIntyre, H., 2018. Childish gambino’s ‘This Is America’ has already been certified platinum [online]. Forbes. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2018/05/31/childish-gambinos-this-is-america-has-already-been-certified-platinum/?sh=78b06fd07b2c ].

(Pantoja 2019, sec. Though Donald Glover has many talents, we’re here to look at his filmography as an actor. He began with a few minor roles on 30 Rock, a show he also wrote for, and he has taken off since. With a massive role as Simba in The Lion King)

Pantoja, K., 2019. Donald Glover’s 10 best roles, ranked [online]. ScreenRant. Available from: https://screenrant.com/donald-glover-greatest-best-roles-ever-ranked/ .

Showers, F., 2015. Being black, foreign and woman: African immigrant identities in the United States. Ethnic and racial studies [online], 38 (10), 1815–1830. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2015.1036763.

(Stanley 2009, sec. Ms. Fey is one of the funniest comedy writers on television and a gifted mimic (Sarah Palin), and she is at her worst playing a comic version of herself.)

Stanley, A., 2009. Still biting the Hand that feeds. The New York times [online], 14 October 2009. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/arts/television/15rock.html [Accessed 28 Feb 2023].

(Vogel 2018, sec. By contrast, “This Is America” addresses racism, police brutality, gun violence, media spectacle, and voyeurism.)

Vogel, J., 2018. What was the last political song to hit no. 1 before childish gambino’s ‘this is America’? [online]. Forbes. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joevogel/2018/05/16/what-was-the-last-political-song-to-hit-no-1-before-childish-gambinos-this-is-america/?sh=227c964d5acc [Accessed 28 Feb 2023].