Press Release

HU welcomes Emmy Award-winning casting director, alum Robi Reed

Hampton, Va Hampton University Office of Alumni Affairs presents The Pirates Cove featuring Robi Reed, Vice President of Talent and Casting for Original Programming at BET and HU graduate. The conversation and Q & A will take place on April 4 at 6 p.m. in Armstrong Hall Little Theater. Reed has had a hand in the careers of many and is known for taking the ordinary and creating the extraordinary. She has cast Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Rosie Perez Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah and other stars in major roles. She has more than 50 films to her credit, including blockbusters Soul Food, The Best Man, For Colored Girls, Love Jones, Set It Off and Antwone Fisher, in which she cast Derek Luke in his first leading role. Her first studio film came with Spike Lees School Daze. Reed went on to cast Lees Do The Right Thing, Mo Better Blues, Crooklyn, Clockers and Jungle Fever breaking out two of Hollywoods biggest stars, Samuel L. Jackson and Halle Berry. In 1997 Reed earned an Emmy Award for her outstanding work in casting The Tuskegee Airmen for HBO Pictures. In 1998 she received a second Emmy nomination for her work on HBOs Only in America: The Don King Story and in 1999 a third Emmy nomination came for HBO's A Lesson Before Dying. After 25 years of running her own company, Robi Reed Entertainment, Reed joined the executive ranks at Black Entertainment Television (BET). In her new position as Vice President of Talent and Casting for Original Programming, she oversees all scripted and non-scripted shows for the network, including the hugely successful series The Game. Satisfying her philanthropic nature, Reed recently launched The Reed For Hope Foundation (RFHF).The mission for RFHF is to raise funds to support HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention organizations, women and childrens health initiatives and disease prevention and healthy lifestyle/living platforms. Reed holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in speech communication and theatre from Hampton University in 1982. She is the proud mother of college freshman Noah and high school junior Summer Humes. The Pirates Cove brings distinguished alumni to campus, offers direct access for undergraduate students, and provides a glimpse of how a Hampton University education can be applied to the post graduate world. For more information on the event call 757-728-4012. #HU# Media Contact: Yuri R. Milligan, University Relations, 757.727.5253, yuri.milligan@hamptonu.edu

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