Originally published April 2021:
Calumet Regional 2021 Oscar Winner Mia Neal Breaks Glass Ceiling
In 2021 the Calumet Region in Indiana adds another Oscar winner to its historic cinematic legacy. Gary native Mia Neal, along with co-artists Jamika Wilson and Sergio Lopez-Rivera, won in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Artist category – a glass-ceiling breakthrough for women of color in this 93rd year of the Oscar Awards history.
The film, Ma Rainy’s Black Bottom, made for television and cinema and distributed by Netflix, is a biopic adapted from renowned playwright August Wilson’s stage production. Set in Chicago in the 1920s, the play deals with issues of race, art, religion, and the historic exploitation of Black recording artists by White producers. The title comes from Ma Rainey’s song of the same name, which refers to the “Black Bottom” dance.
Rainey, whose life as a well-known Blues singer of the 1920s is an inspiration for the play, is also the titular character. Actress Viola Davis plays the lead role in this story that captures the famous diva’s fierce independence as Black female Blues chanteuse. Talented make-up artists like Oscar awardee trio of Neal, Wilson, and Lopez-Rivera are able to capture an era’s style and cultural nuance by accentuating timeless authenticity.
Mia Neal, a graduate of Emerson High School in Gary, joins others who have represented the Calumet Region in previous Oscar awards, including screenwriter Steve Tesich, who won in Best Screenwriter category for his film Breaking Away in 1979. Tesich, born in Serbia, grew up in the Region and attended East Chicago Roosevelt High school.
Actor Karl Malden was recipient of the coveted Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1951 for the film version of A Street Car Named Desire and like his Oscar-winning counterpart, Mia Neal, h also happens to be a graduate of Emerson High School in Gary.
Congratulations!