Source: Fair Use / Twitter
Move over Tyler Perry! It looks like there’s a new multi-millionaire film producer taking over the Atlanta area.
Meet Tammy Williams. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Williams has now become the first Black woman to own a multi-million dollar film and post-production studio in Atlanta. The entertainment industry veteran has been working in the film and television business for over 25 years, and she does it all, from writing and producing documentaries to developing a wide variety of films, biographies, and network news.
According to her IMBD page, Williams launched her first digital production company, Tammy’ Dele Films in 2016. Now, she’ll get to continue living our dreams in her very own studio smack dab in the middle of the Big Peach. Talk about a full-circle moment!
The studio will cost a whopping $135 million to build and will be constructed on 60 acres of sprawling land on the northern edge of Fayette County. Williams and her business partner and investor Gary Guidry plan to start construction in March.
When the enormous project is complete, the campus, which has been dubbed Cinema South Studios, will feature “11 soundstages, a back-lot, a prop house, a wardrobe rental facility, a lighting grip rental house, a transportation company, and an office building with a theater and post-production facilities”, according to a press release, Ebony noted. Williams hopes to have the first two sound stages built by the first quarter of 2023.
Earlier this month, the busy film producer gushed about the historic move to the AJC, and according to Williams, this dream has been 12 years in the making.
“We’ve been patient,” she said. “This has not been an overnight thing, this vision for us.”
Guidry echoed a similar sentiment.
“The demand for soundstages is happening globally and the ownership rarely looks like us, let alone an African American woman. When I choose to invest, I evaluate the need of the business and the ownership. Investing in Tammy Williams and her team of professionals convinced me that buying the land in Fayetteville, GA was a sound decision with the talents of her at the helm,” he said in a statement.
Having majored in Mass Communications/Radio & Television Production, Williams began her career in television after college as an editor in news at WTVF CBS in Nashville, TN. The steadfast creator primed her writing and producing chops at WRCB TV -NBC in Chattanooga, TN, creating short-form promos and commercials for the station. Williams then ventured over to WDSU NBC, New Orleans, LA where she began writing long formatted documentaries and live shows.
With hard work and determination, anything is possible!
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