Michael Ajakwe jr. (writer/producer/director)
Mike began writing, producing and directing theater in 1993, starting with his first play Reasons. This romantic comedy about a man, his jealous girlfriend and his best friend who happens to be a woman starred a then-unknown Gary Sturgis (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Daddy’s Little Girl), Niecy Nash (Reno 911, Clean House) and Hill Harper (CSI: New York). Reasons ran for eight months, starting at Inglewood’s Roger’s Park and ending the 1270-seat Wilshire-Ebell Theater. In 1994, Mike followed-up Reasons with Company Policy – a drama about two African-American executives hired to integrate a small, lily-white insurance film. The play ran for six-months at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood and garnered a trio of NAACP Theatre Award Nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Playwright – the latter of which Mike won. In 1996, Mike returned to the Hudson with Three African-American One Act Plays: Double Or Nothin’, The Ride, Happy Anniversary Punk! Double Or Nothin’ showed a man trying to date a woman who is constantly being blocked by her young son; The Ride was about what O.J. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings talked about during that infamous white bronco slow-speed freeway chase and featured Phil Morris (Seinfeld’s Jackie Chiles) in the lead role; and Happy Anniversary, Punk! which starred Tommy Hicks (She’s Gotta Have It). Mike has also produced shows for award-winning playwright Christina Harley (The Dreamers), The Parkers and Moesha co-creator Sara Finney-Johnson (Three Plays By Sara Finney: Simple Things, Mazel Tov & Black Eyed Peas, Glow), and Love Boat star Ted Lange (Four Queens, No Trump! – which received 7 NAACP Theater Award Nominations, winning for Best Producer). In 2000, Company Policy was released, making Mike the first African-American to have a play published in the 21st Century. In 2001, South Central Stories: Double or Nothin’, The Ride, Happy Anniversary Punk! was published. Mike’s plays have been excerpted in Best Men’s Monologues, Best Women’s Monologue, Best Stage Scenes, and Outstanding Monologs and Scenes of the 90s. He has written and/or produced TV shows like Soul Food, The Parkers, Martin, Moesha, Between Brothers, The Brothers Garcia, Built To Last, Sister Sister, Entertainment Tonight, Steve Harvey’s Big Time, Eve, and E! Network’s Talk Soup for which Mike won a producing Emmy in 1995. Mike has sold TV pilots to Paramount TV (The Second Family) and Warner Bros. TV (Alley Cats). In 2002, Rat Entertainment (Bret Ratner) and Artisan Pictures hired him to write his first film, Crip. From 2000-03, he was the TV Professor for the Bill & Camille Cosby-sponsored Guy Hanks/Marvin Miller TV & Screenwriting Fellowship Program at USC. Fellows Mike has mentored have gone on to write for Girlfriends, One On One, The Division, My Wife & Kids, The Proud Family, ER, The District, Eve, Fatherhood, Kingpin and Lincoln Heights. In ‘03, he wrote an essay for the “Power & Respect” chapter of the best-selling anthology Souls Of My Brothers. Also in ‘03, Mike, Jamie Foxx Show creator Bentley Evans and legendary actress/choreographer Debbie Allen traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to develop the sitcom, Journal Feliz (The Good News), for Picante Pictures. In ’04, Mike co-created a second sitcom, Mano A Mano (Brother To Brother) for Picante partners David Morales and Scott Wood that debuted April ’05 on the Record Network in Brazil and ran an entire season. Also in ‘04, Mike and Picante co-produced Rocket Science & Salsa: The Shayla Rivera Story at the Zephyr Theater in Hollywood. The sold-out, one-woman show about a Puerto Rican rocket scientist who gave up working for NASA to become a comedian was co-written by Mike and directed by Debbie Allen, and was nominated for two NAACP Theater Awards. In 2002, Mike wrote a play about Motown legends Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell called You’re All I Need To Get By that starred Prince protégé Ta’Mar and attracted everyone from Lakers legend Norm Nixon to Britney Spears. Mike followed up this success in ’03 when he wrote, directed and produced If You Don’t Believe: A Love Story (Featuring the Songs of Deniece Williams) that starred ex-Fresh Prince of Bel-Air regular Tatyana Ali. Mike produced the sold-out show with legendary songbird Deniece Williams and the play received 8 NAACP Theater Award Nominations (including Best Director for Mike), winning for Best Musical Director (Scott Allen). “Body Language (Featuring the Songs of Patti LaBelle)” was originally produced in Los Angeles in the spring of ’05 and also played for a week at the 1800-seat Warner Theater in Washington D.C. in the spring of ‘06. It received 7 NAACP Theater Award Nominations (including another Best Director nom for Mike), winning again for Best Musical Director (Matilda Haywood) and Best Choreographer (Madonna Grimes).
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Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mike wanted to be a writer since he was 12. He graduated from Inglewood’s Morningside High and later attended the University of Redlands on a full academic scholarship, majoring in English and Political Science. He graduated with honors and was named the Most Outstanding Senior of his graduating class. Mike paid his way through college working in a movie theater, writing for Redland’s Magazine and freelancing as a sportswriter for the Redlands Daily Facts and Riverside Press Enterprise newspapers.