DUSTIN Lance Black is an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker from America.
On this side of the pond he is best known for being married to Olympic gold medalist diver Tom Daley — here we take a look at Black’s career and net worth.
Dustin is a 49-year-old American director, screenwriter, producer and LGBT+ rights activist.
He has won multiple prestigious Hollywood awards for his work, including the 2009 Best Original Screenplay Oscar for the film Milk.
In his acceptance speech Black said: “When I was thirteen years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas, to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk.
“And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and that maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married.
“I want to thank my mom, who has always loved me for who I am even when there was pressure not to.
“But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us thirty years ago, I think he’d want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches or by the government or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you God does love you, and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.
“Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk.
Among other gongs, the script also won him a Writers Guild of America Award, a San Francisco Critics Circle Award, and an International Cinephile Society Award.
Dustin’s career started with a number of shorts and features, which he wrote and directed, but were not given wide releases and didn’t do big box office numbers.
His first film was a short named Something Close to Heaven, released in 2000, which centred on a young boy’s sexual awakening, complicated by his mother’s prostitution.
His second effort was a gay romance film called The Journey of Jared Price, which was also released in 2000.
In 2008 he co-wrote the movie Pedro with Paris Barclay about the first gay man to appear on an MTV reality show in 1994.
Unfortunately there is no box office information available for any of these films.
Dustin wrote a feature about the life and work of the first openly gay American politician, Harvey Milk — titled Milk — which was released in 2008 and met with critical acclaim.
The movie stars Sean Penn and was directed by Gus Van Sant.
Milk grossed $54.6million at the box office worldwide.
In 2010 Black wrote and directed Virginia, starring Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris and Harrison Gilbertson.
It’s about a sheriff’s bid to join the state senate falling into jeopardy when his daughter becomes romantically entangled with the son of a psychologically disturbed woman he had a 20-year long affair with.
The film’s worldwide lifetime total gross is $12,7million (£10.4million).
Dustin wrote the screenplay for the 2011 movie J. Edgar, a film that starring Leonardo Dicaprio and directed by Clint Eastwood.
The plot is revolves around former head of the FBI J Edgar Hoover looking back on his professional and personal life.
J. Edgar grossed $84.9million (69.6million) at the box office worldwide.
The most recent release Black has worked as a writer on is titled Rustin, directed by George C Wolfe.
The film is about the racism and homophobia American Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin — who was an adviser to Martin Luther King Jr — faced as he helped to change the course of history.
There isn’t any box office information available for this movie yet, as it was only released on November 3, 2023.
Reports of Dustin’s net worth vary, but not dramatically.
At the bottom end a number of outlets put it at $6million (4.9million).
At the top end CelebrityNetWorth claims Black is worth $10million (£8.2million).
