
Biography
Ruth E. Carter (born April 10, 1960) is an American costume designer for film and television. She is best known for her collaborations with Spike Lee, John Singleton, and Ryan Coogler. During her film career, Carter has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, for her work on Lee's biographical film Malcolm X (1992), Steven Spielberg's historical drama film Amistad (1997), and won twice for Coogler's Marvel superhero films Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022); becoming the first African-American to win and be nominated for Best Costume Design. She was nominated for a fifth time for her work in Coogler's Sinners (2025), breaking the record for most-nominated Black woman in Oscar history. Her other film credits include Do the Right Thing(1989), What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), Love & Basketball (2000), Serenity (2005), The Butler (2013), Selma (2014), Marshall (2017), Dolemite Is My Name (2019), and Coming 2 America (2021). She also received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Period Costumes for a Limited Series for her work on the 2016 miniseries Roots. Carter is the recipient of the Career Achievement Award from the Costume Designers Guild Awards, in addition to receiving two competitive awards from the organisation. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ruth E. Carter, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Awards & recognition
- Academy Award — Best Costume Design · 2023
- Academy Award — Best Costume Design · 2019
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Academy Award — Best Costume Design · 2023 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Costume Design · 1998 · nominated
Show all 7 awards →
- Academy Award — Best Costume Design · 1993 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Costume Design · nominated
Filmography50+ titles

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Seinfeld

Abstract: The Art of Design

Do the Right Thing

Malcolm X

Sinners

The Best of Me

Black Panther

Selma

Serenity

Marshall

The Butler

Love & Basketball

The Five Heartbeats

Black Dynamite

Baby Boy

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Dolemite Is My Name

Amistad

What's Love Got to Do with It

Roots

Teen Beach Movie

Four Brothers

Crooklyn

Bring It On: Fight to the Finish

Clockers

Summer of Sam

Rosewood

Mo' Better Blues

The Pickup

Jungle Fever

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka

Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Coming 2 America

Bamboozled

Kidnap

Sparkle

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Surviving the Game

Imagine That

Shaft

Above Suspicion

Oldboy

Frankie & Alice

Daddy Day Care

Money Train

Abduction

How Stella Got Her Groove Back

To Tell the Truth

Chi-Raq