Octavia Spencer arrives at the 89th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP
Octavia Spencer arrives at the 89th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP

Octavia Spencer announces plans to become Hollywood producer



Octavia Spencer is up for her second Academy Award this year, but the star of Hidden Figures said Monday that she has even bigger plans.

“The role I’m destined to play is to be one of the biggest producers in Hollywood,” Spencer said at the 3rd annual Makers Conference, a women’s empowerment event sponsored by Verizon.

The actress shared her aspirations during a conversation with Gloria Steinem that kicked off the two-day conference at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Spencer received a supporting actress Oscar nod for playing Dorothy Vaughn, a black mathematician who worked at Nasa, in the crowd-pleasing best picture nominee Hidden Figures. The actress celebrated her nomination earlier Monday at the film academy's annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon.

Spencer told the Makers crowd Monday night that she wants to continue to tell stories “that haven’t really been told.”

“I want the movies that I produce to show a broader spectrum of people in the world,” she said.

Spencer said she is working on a project about the Jonestown Massacre for HBO and developing a story about pioneering entrepreneur Madam CJ Walker.

* Associated Press

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Our legal advisor

Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation. 

Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.

Nepotism is the name of the game

Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad. 

The biog

Occupation: Key marker and auto electrician

Hometown: Ghazala, Syria

Date of arrival in Abu Dhabi: May 15, 1978

Family: 11 siblings, a wife, three sons and one daughter

Favourite place in UAE: Abu Dhabi

Favourite hobby: I like to do a mix of things, like listening to poetry for example.

Favourite Syrian artist: Sabah Fakhri, a tenor from Aleppo

Favourite food: fresh fish