Oscars: Meet the Academy Member Class of 2021 – Ramsey Nouah, Mo Abudu & Andrew Dosunmu

Ramsey Nouah, Mo Abudu and Andrew Dosunmu are among the 395 people invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences!

The class of 2021 was announced on Thursday and is made up of actors, cinematographers, costume designers, producers, makeup artists and hairstylists, and music professionals.

Genevieve Nnaji, Akin Omotoso, and Cynthia Erivo became members in 2020. Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Femi Odugbemi, and Simon Onwurah joined in 2018.

The class of 2021 has 46% women, 39% members of underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53% coming from 49 countries. There are 89 past Oscar nominees among the 395 guests, including 25 winners.

Although receiving an Oscar and/or a nomination is a big plus, it does not necessarily guarantee you entrance into the membership, but clearly this year the various branches took their cues from the most recent group of nominees who weren’t able to vote for themselves in April, but now are among the chosen. The new additions will bring the number of eligible Oscar voters up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 9,750, although that is not an exact number as all 395 must now accept the invites, and there has been some attrition due to deaths from last year’s AMPAS-supplied number of 9,362 eligible voters.

Mo Abudu shared on her Instagram page that she’s been invited to join the 46% of women who make up the 2021 class. The media mogul wrote on her Instagram:

Good morning beautiful people

I am pleased and excited to inform you that I have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, popularly known as ‘THE OSCARS’, in the PRODUCER membership category. My producer credits listed by The Academy are OLOTURE and THE ROYAL HIBISCUS HOTEL.

It’s such an honour to be included in this category by The Academy. I am proud to be one of 29 Producers from around the world who has received this invitation, and the only Nigerian and African woman in the Producer category. Ladies, we can do anything!
I give GOD all GLORY and all HONOUR
My thanks and love to the EBONYLIFE team who work so hard to make these things possible. This membership is ours, guys!

We will continue to do what we do best – TELLING AFRICAN STORIES TO AUDIENCES AROUND THE WORLD.

Last but not least, my congratulations to my brothers @shot_by_andrew_dosunmu and @ramseynouah, respectively invited into Director and Actor membership categories of the Academy.

 

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Also invited to join the academy was Leslie Odom Jr, Shaka King, Issa Rae, H.E.R, Andra Day, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Laverne Cox, Rita Cooper Lee, Jon Batiste, and Janet Jackson. 

According to the press release:

The number of new invitees, an exercise done only once each year, has been dramatically more than in half from last year’s class of 819, a number in line with the expansion of AMPAS membership put in place over the past five years in order to bring in more diversity and increase the numbers of women and underrepresented artists.

The dramatic slowdown in admitting new members was done to enable steady future growth and to ensure the necessary infrastructure, staff resources and environment to support all Academy members.