Datari Turner is a veteran film producer operating out of Southern California. ^[1][5]

Turner was was born to a lower-middle-class family. His father had a government job and his mother was a supervisor of the Acorn housing projects. He grew up in a rough area of Richmond, California. Many of his peers were murdered, or wound up in jail. He credits his interest in sports for keeping him healthy and off the streets during his formative years. Turner was an All American in high school, and earned a full scholarship to Oklahoma State University, but a broken collarbone sidelined him in his freshman year and inadvertently led him to modeling. ^[2]

In 2019, he bought a $1.067 million home in Tarzana, Los Angeles with 2,406 square feet of interior space. Datari lives in Beverly Hills, California and is on the board of The Black House Foundation. ^[3]

When Turner was 19, he signed with Ford Modeling Agency. In 1999, he became one of the first African-Americans ever to grace billboards for a popular Abercrombie & Fitch campaign. Not stopping there he was also featured on billboards for major brands such as Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Sean John. He was ranked #8 out of the top 50 male models in the world by models.com in 2002. However, because of some bad investments and a money draining lifestyle he was broke by 2003. ^[4]

Besides sports, Turner had always loved film, so he bought a few books on screenwriting and set out to rebuild. His first script,* Video GirlOutkast film called Idlewild*, but when* Idlewildfailed Video Girl* was shelved.^[2]

Around that time Turner began teaming up with Meagan Good who later became his production partner. He started tapping into is modeling contacts to pitch projects. After a call to Damon Dash to discuss an African-American version of The Apprentice, The Ultimate Hustler Lisa Raye: The Real McCoy, and I Married a Baller. ^[1]

Datari Turner has taken home more than a whopping 90 awards in various film related categories and has worked with dozens of Hollywood greats including Meagan Good, Ruby Dee, Demi Moore, Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn, Marisa Tomei, Jennifer Connelly, Pierce Brosnan, Ed Harris, Common, Danny Glover, Dennis Haysbert, James Franco, Dev Petal, Stacey Dash, Stacy Keibler, and Terrell "T.O." Owen, Julia Stiles, America Ferrera, Brian Geraghty, Abigail Spencer, Alice Eve, Stanley Tucci, Katherine Heigl, James Remar, Mariel Hemingway, Briana Evigan, Omari Hardwick, Lisa Raye, Raven-Symoné, Ethan Hawke, Emil Hircsh, Hailee Steinfeld, Tyson Beckford, Sessilee Lopez, Roger Guenveur Smith. ^[1]

Datari Turner has contributed over 200 hours of original programming to WETV, BET, TvOne, Starz, and the Oxygen network.