Women’s History Month celebrates the trailblazing women who have shattered glass ceilings. Today, we spotlight a visionary who has done just that — director Tailiah Breon. At just 30 years old, she is one of Atlanta’s most sought-after directors, a success she achieved by design.
Breon had an interesting route to becoming a movie director, one that’s uncommon. At 21, she bet on herself, and instead of going to film school or college, she decided to leave her hometown of Raleigh, NC and move to Atlanta. Once there, she connected with the perfect mentor, Derek Blanks, a photographer, illustrator, producer, and creative director. He is renowned for his iconic “Alter Ego,” a viral portrait series that featured celebrities like Chaka Khan, Taraji P. Henson, and Angela Bassett, showcasing his ability to capture multifaceted personas. Collaborations with high-profile clients and celebrities distinguish Blanks’ career. He has directed music videos for artists such as Chrisette Michele’s “Charades” in 2013, Fantasia’s “Enough” in 2019, and Missy Elliott’s “Why I Still Love You” in 2020, cementing himself in the industry.
He was the perfect mentor for someone trying to break into the film space, but he wasn’t an easy one. At first, it felt like an internship to her. She was doing all the little things except what she wanted to make videos. Blanks had her cleaning the studio, running errands, moving set pieces, and sometimes doing nothing except watching. But it taught her a valuable lesson and allowed her to learn every aspect of production, for which Tailiah is grateful now. Eventually, after a while, Tailiah Breon earned Blanks’s trust and was finally doing what she prayed and hoped for, and that was starting to assist him on actual music videos and other projects. Soon Blanks was giving her projects he didn’t have time for, and Voila! Tailiah Breon, the director, was born.
Breon made a name for herself by shooting music videos for artists around the city. She even started making her short films on YouTube, which started buzzing. The opportunity of a lifetime, no pun intended, happened when a colleague recommended that the budding director direct a movie for the Lifetime network. After a meeting with the network and securing that first film, she quickly secured more after doing excellent work for Lifetime. She is now on her seventh film with Lifetime, and previous titles included “LUST,” Lifetime’s Thriller, “Line Sisters,” and the NAACP-nominated “Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas.”
Her seventh film will be her biggest and most personal ever as she will be directing Lifetime’s “Not My Family: The Monique Smith Story“ airing April 12 on Lifetime. The movie is based on the real-life story of the longest-living Jane Doe, Monique Smith, who was abducted as a toddler and raised by a family that wasn’t hers. She hopes that viewers take away that family isn’t always guaranteed and how lucky most people are to be with their real family who loves, appreciates, and treats them right. The movie is weighty, but it is a story that we all need to hear and one that Breon put her heart into.
Seven is the number of completions, and even though she hopes to keep producing hits for Lifetime, she wants to extend her branches to other networks and platforms, too. This year she hopes to land directing opportunities with Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix, where she can show off her directing chops unfiltered. At only the age of 30, with almost a decade of directorial experience in her resume, I’m sure she will cross Netflix’s and Amazon Prime’s radar in no time, and I’m sure it will happen sooner rather than later.
