Ernest Dickerson

Ernest Roscoe Dickerson A.S.C. (usually credited as Ernest R. Dickerson or Ernest Dickerson, born June 25, 1951) is an American film and television director and cinematographer. He has directed generally urban films sometimes with supernatural stories like Juice, Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, Bones and Never Die Alone. He is known for his frequent collaborations with Spike Lee.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Dickerson attended Howard University and New York University Graduate School of Film.

He began his career as cinematographer on music videos for Bruce Springsteen, Anita Baker, and Miles Davis. His first feature film as Director of Photography was also Spike Lee's first film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983) and he went on to film John Sayles' Brother from Another Planet (1984) and John Jopson's One Night with Blue Note (1985). He continued his collaboration with Spike Lee on five more films, including She's Gotta Have It (1986) and Do the Right Thing (1989). Their last collaboration was on Malcolm X in 1992, the same year Dickerson made his directing debut with Juice. He worked as a 2nd unit director on Lee's Miracle at St Anna.

For television, Dickerson as directed several episodes of acclaimed shows such as Dexter, The Walking Dead and Treme. He has also worked with Mick Garris on both Masters of Horror and Fear Itself.