Live #BOSSChat Interview With Crystal McCrary via Twitter

Award-winning film, tv producer and author, Crystal McCrary, began her career practicing entertainment law specializing in theatre production, publishing contracts and director’s agreements with the New York City firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison before leaving to pursue a full-time career in writing and producing. Since that time, she has written for several magazines, published two New York Times best-selling novels, and produced original programming for TV & Film.

Ms. McCrary published the New York Times Best-selling novels HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE (Harper Collins/Avon) and GOTHAM DIARIES (Hyperion). She also executive produced the independent film DIRTY LAUNDRY (FOX Films), winning Best Feature Film at the American Black Film Festival. For six seasons Ms. McCrary served as co-creator/executive producer for the NAACP Image Award nominated VIACOM documentary series LEADING WOMEN and LEADING MEN which profiled women and men of color who have impacted the country socially, politically and culturally including Dr. Maya Angelou, Iman, Mo’Nique, Patti LaBelle, Lisa Leslie, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Susan Taylor, Tracy Reese, Debra Martin Chase, Sanaa Lathan, Mara Brock Akil, Wynton Marsalis, Wylef Jean, Hill Harper and Terrance Howard to name a few. She also hosted, created and executive produced the three-part documentary series INSIDE: Black Culture profiling The Studio Museum in Harlem, Evidence: A Dance Company and Abyssinian Baptist Church. In production, Ms. McCrary has a feature length documentary entitled LITTLE BALLERS which chronicles the lives and challenges of the New Heights AAU eleven-year olds basketball team and their journey to the National Championship. Ms. McCrary is also in pre-production with iDeal Partners Film Fund for the film version of her first novel HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE. Crystal’s next book, INSPIRATION: PROFILES OF BLACK WOMEN CHANGING THE WORLD will be published by Harry N. Abrams, February, 2012 and includes profiles of First Lady Michelle Obama, Venus Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Marian Wright Edelman, Mary J. Blige, Judith Jamison, Soledad O’brien, Shonda Rhimes, Iman and many others.

Dedicated to and outspoken on education, children’s rights and women’s issues, she has appeared on several national television shows including Good Morning America, The TODAY Show, the Tavis Smiley Show and as a regular cultural critic on CNN American Morning. Ms. McCrary also appeared as a guest co-host on ABC’s The View, interviewing then U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton. She has also been a legal analyst on numerous television shows including Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNBC as well as a co-host on the 2008 NAMIC vision award winning BET show, "My 2 Cents." She has also interviewed President Bill Clinton and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Ms. McCrary has been featured in People Magazine, Black Enterprise, Town & Country, Newsweek, the New York Times, Mirabella, Vanity Fair, Ebony, Vogue, The New Yorker, Essence Magazine, O Magazine and USA Today. She was also named to Crain’s-New York Business Forty Under Forty.

Ms. McCrary sits on the advisory board of Jumpstart, a national organization dedicated to increasing early childhood literacy particularly in low-income neighborhoods across the country. Her interest in education initiatives was sparked during her time as a substitute elementary school teacher in Detroit, MI. She is also on the Advisory Committee for Hyperion Books imprint VOICE focusing on women 35 and older, offering books that answer today’s women’s needs as well as the New 42nd Street Board which offers theatre and education through the New Victory Theatre to low income children and teens in New York City.

Ms. McCrary is a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (B.A., 1991). She then attended New York University School of Law (J.D., 1995). Ms. McCrary also studied International European Community Law in Paris, France. She resides in New York City with her eleven-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter.

Learn more about Crystal this Thursday, July 12th, at 7pm CST for #BOSSChat via Twitter @TheBOSSNetwork