The chief executive for Lead With Love, a company whose mission it is to shine the spotlight on Black creatives and underrepresented minorities, is being mourned days after what police say was a random act of violence took his life.
Michael Latt, 33, was shot to death on his doorstep on Monday, Nov. 27 in Los Angeles by a 36-year-old homeless woman living in her car. Police said they arrested the woman, whom they identified as Jameelah Elena Michl, at the scene after she allegedly entered the property of Latt and his fiancee, Hannah Lovingood, without permission and shot Latt in the head.
Latt founded Lead With Love in 2019, and oversaw marketing campaigns that featured Common and director Ryan Coogler. His company also was at the forefront of a 2020 get-out-the-vote effort that helped President Biden get elected. He also was part of the effort to promote the film Till, which was about Emmitt Till’s lynching in 1955.
He traveled in the same circles as Black directors like Coogler and Ava DuVernay because he grew up in the business. His father is film producer David Latt, his mother Michelle Satter, the senior director at the Sundance Institute, where her son worked for a time. His brother, Franklin Latt, is an agent at Creative Artists Agency.
“Our beloved son Michael Latt fell victim to a tragic act of violence this week,” Satter posted on Wednesday, Nov. 29 on X. “Michael devoted his career to supporting artists, championing organizations that raised up artists of color [and] leveraged storytelling for enduring change.”
He was a consultant for DuVernay’s Array Now, a social impact collective dedicated to narrative change. Latt also was a part of the marketing department for the 2016 James Baldwin-focused documentary I Am Not Your Negro and worked with the Campaign for Black Male Achievement.
“He was the definitive ally — used every tool he had to elevate the voices and work of Black creatives,” Akilah Hughes, a writer and friend of Latt’s, posted on X.
Actor Jesse Williams, perhaps best known for his work as Dr. Jackson Avery on “Grey’s Anatomy,” called the tragedy a “devastating loss” and added that “Michael was a shining beacon of selfless kindness and consistency” in an Instagram post.
