Biography
Ruth E. Carter 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); this made her 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.
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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