Jeff Wray

Professor - Film Studies

Jeffrey C. Wray is a Professor in the Film Studies program, Department of English at Michigan State University. He specializes in filmmaking, African-American literature and culture and creative writing. In addition to teaching, Jeffrey is a filmmaker and screenwriter whose productions include Songs for my Right Side (2020), BLAT! Pack Live (2015), The Evolution of Bert (2014) and China (2003). His films have screened in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Zurich, and Berlin. He has received numerous grants and honors including a PBS/Independent Television Service (ITVS) American Stories III Production Grant, John Anson Kittredge Foundation Fellowship, Art Serve Michigan Individual Artist Award, Ohio Arts Council Major Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Film and Video Fellowship, and a filmmaker residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University. His notable screenplays include The Soul Singer, a musical drama and a 2018 quarterfinalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, and Eclipse, a political drama set in the turbulent summer of 1964. His essay How Ella Mae Wray Seized the Opportunities of 1968 was recently published in The Atlantic.

Jeffrey C. Wray is Monique Kelly's mentor.