Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind The Making of “Akeelah and the Bee”
The director
Unlike most of the films you’ll see featured in our “Bet You Didn’t Know” series, Akeelah is different in that it was directed by a non-black director. Doug Atchison, a graduate of USC, had written and directed two other films before he wrote Akeelah and the Bee. The movie took over 10 years to make from when Atchison first had the idea. Atchison, who was a tutor for disadvantaged students, got the initial idea when he was watching the 1994 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
In an interview with Washington University’s campus paper Student Life, Atchison explained how it happened.
“I was channel surfing and I came upon these kids spelling. You just get sucked in by these kids and you start rooting for them. I look up and I’ve been watching it for three and a half hours. I knew there was a movie here.”
