Ruth E. Carter

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title: "Ruth E. Carter" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1960-births", "living-people", "20th-century-african-american-artists", "20th-century-american-artists", "20th-century-american-women-artists", "21st-century-african-american-artists", "21st-century-american-women-artists", "21st-century-american-artists", "african-american-designers", "american-costume-designers", "american-women-costume-designers", "artists-from-springfield,-massachusetts", "best-costume-design-academy-award-winners", "costume-designers-guild-career-achievement-award-recipients", "excellence-in-contemporary-film-costume-designers-guild-award-winners", "excellence-in-sci-fi/fantasy-film-costume-designers-guild-award-winners", "hampton-university-alumni"] description: "American costume designer (born 1960)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_E._Carter" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American costume designer (born 1960) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Ruth E. Carter
image	Ruth E. Carter - Sinners.jpg
caption	Carter in 2025
birth_date
birth_place	Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
alma_mater	Hampton University (BA)
occupation	Costume designer
years_active	1982–present
::

| name = Ruth E. Carter | image = Ruth E. Carter - Sinners.jpg | alt = | caption = Carter in 2025 | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S. | alma_mater = Hampton University (BA) | occupation = Costume designer | years_active = 1982–present

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); 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.

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), 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 organization.

Early life and education

Carter was born on April 10, 1960, in Springfield, Massachusetts, in a single-parent household. Her mother is Mabel Carter, and she was the youngest of eight children. At nine years old, she began attending the Boys & Girls Club. Using her mother's sewing machine, Carter learned from the organization how to read and design Simplicity patterns. She graduated in 1978 from Technical High School, Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1982, Carter graduated from Hampton Institute, later renamed Hampton University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts.

Career

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Ruth_E._Carter_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" caption="Carter in 2018"] ::

After graduating, Carter returned to her hometown, working as an intern for City Stage's costume department and then the Santa Fe Opera. In 1986, she moved to Los Angeles to work at the city's Theater Center. While working there, Carter met director Spike Lee, who hired her for his second film, School Daze (1988). She continued working on his subsequent films, including Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), and Malcolm X (1992).

Aside from her work with Spike Lee, Carter also designed costumes for Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997) and several of John Singleton's films, such as Rosewood (1997) and Baby Boy (2001). She further designed costumes for the American television drama series Being Mary Jane on BET Networks, created by Mara Brock Akil and starring Gabrielle Union.

Carter worked on the superhero film Black Panther (2018), directed by Ryan Coogler. Deriving from Afrofuturism, her costumes were inspired by many traditional African garments, including those of the Maasai and Ndebele people. She traveled to southern Africa to draw aesthetic inspirations and received permission to incorporate traditional Lesotho designs into the film's costumes. At the 91st Academy Awards, she won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, making her the first Black woman to win the Academy Award in the category.

Carter won 2 Oscars for Costume Design for Black Panther and Wakanda Forever, making history as the first African-American in that category. She also made history being the first African-American woman to win multiple Oscars in any category. A 4-time Academy Award nominee also for Malcolm X and Amistad, she has 50 feature film credits including Do the Right Thing, The Butler, Selma, and Marshall and received the 2019 Costume Designers Guild Career Achievement Award.

In 2021, Carter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the film category.

In 2023, Carter won her second Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). During her acceptance speech, Carter dedicated her win to her mother, who had died during the prior week at the age of 101. Also in 2023, the North Carolina Museum of Art hosted an exhibit displaying more than sixty of Carter's original garments.

On January 22, 2026, Carter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Sinners; this was her fifth Academy Award nomination, making her the most nominated Black woman in the history of the Academy Awards.

Filmography

Film

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Director
1988	School Daze	Spike Lee
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka	Keenen Ivory Wayans
1989	Do the Right Thing	Spike Lee
1990	Mo' Better Blues
1991	House Party 2	Doug McHenry
George Jackson
Jungle Fever	Spike Lee
The Five Heartbeats	Robert Townsend
1992	Malcolm X	Spike Lee
1993	The Meteor Man	Robert Townsend
What's Love Got to Do with It	Brian Gibson
1994	Cobb	Ron Shelton
Crooklyn	Spike Lee
Surviving the Game	Ernest R. Dickerson
1995	Money Train	Joseph Ruben
Clockers	Spike Lee
1996	The Great White Hype	Reginald Hudlin
1997	BAP*S	Robert Townsend
Rosewood	John Singleton
Amistad	Steven Spielberg
1999	Summer of Sam	Spike Lee
2000	Price of Glory	Carlos Ávila
Love & Basketball	Gina Prince-Bythewood
Shaft	John Singleton
Bamboozled	Spike Lee
2001	Baby Boy	John Singleton
Dr. Dolittle 2	Steve Carr
2002	I Spy	Betty Thomas
2003	Daddy Day Care	Steve Carr
2004	Against the Ropes	Charles S. Dutton
2005	Four Brothers	John Singleton
Serenity	Joss Whedon
2008	Meet Dave	Brian Robbins
2009	Spread	David Mackenzie
Black Dynamite	Scott Sanders
Imagine That	Karey Kirkpatrick
2010	Frankie & Alice	Geoffrey Sax
2011	Abduction	John Singleton
2012	Sparkle	Salim Akil
2013	Teen Beach Movie	Jeffrey Hornaday
Oldboy	Spike Lee
The Butler	Lee Daniels
2014	The Best of Me	Michael Hoffman
Selma	Ava DuVernay
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus	Spike Lee
2015	Chi-Raq
2016	Keeping Up with the Joneses	Greg Mottola
2017	Kidnap	Luis Prieto
Marshall	Reginald Hudlin
2018	Black Panther	Ryan Coogler
2019	Above Suspicion	Phillip Noyce
Dolemite Is My Name	Craig Brewer
2021	Coming 2 America
2022	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever	Ryan Coogler
2025	Sinners
The Pickup	Tim Story
2027	The Thomas Crown Affair	Michael B. Jordan
::

Television

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Notes	Ref.
2014	Being Mary Jane	2 episodes
2016	Roots	4 episodes
::

Awards and nominations

;Major associations Academy Awards ::data[format=table]

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
1993	Best Costume Design	Malcolm X
1998	Amistad
2019	Black Panther
2023	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2026	Sinners
::

BAFTA Awards ::data[format=table]

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.	British Academy Film Awards
2026	Best Costume Design	Sinners
::

Emmy Awards ::data[format=table]

Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.	Primetime Emmy Awards
2016	Outstanding Costumes for a Period/Fantasy Series, Limited Series, or Movie	Roots (Episode: Night One")
::

;Miscellaneous awards ::data[format=table title="{{sronly|List of Ruth E. Carter other awards and nominations}}"]

Award	Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref.	American Black Film Festival	Astra Film and Creative Arts Awards	Black Reel Awards	Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Costume Designers Guild Awards	Critics' Choice Movie Awards	Fangoria Chainsaw Awards	FashFilmFete	Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards	London Film Critics' Circle Awards	NAACP Image Awards	Online Film Critics Society Awards	Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards	San Diego Film Critics Society Awards	Satellite Awards	Saturn Awards	Seattle Film Critics Society Awards	St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards
2002	Career Achievement Award
2020	Best Costume Design	Dolemite Is My Name
Artisan Achievement Award
2023	Best Costume Design	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2025	Sinners
2019	Outstanding Costume Design	Black Panther
2020	Dolemite Is My Name
2022	Coming 2 America
2023	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2026	Sinners
2019	Best Costume Design	Dolemite Is My Name
2022	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2025	Sinners
2015	Excellence in Period Film	Selma
2019	Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film	Black Panther
Career Achievement Award
2020	Excellence in Period Film	Dolemite Is My Name
2022	Excellence in Contemporary Film	Coming 2 America
2023	Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2026	Excellence in Period Film	Sinners
2019	Best Costume Design	Black Panther
2020	Dolemite Is My Name
2023	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2026	Sinners
2025	Best Costume Design
2023	Costume Design Career Achievement Award in Film
2019	Best Costume Design	Dolemite Is My Name
William Holden Lifetime Achievement Award
2022	Best Costume Design	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2025	Sinners
2023	Technical Achievement Award	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2022	Vanguard Award
2023	Outstanding Costume Design	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2026	Sinners
2019	Best Costume Design	Black Panther
2023	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Lifetime Achievement Award
2026	Best Costume Design	Sinners
2022	Best Costume Design	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2025	Sinners
2019	Best Costume Design	Dolemite Is My Name
2023	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2025	Sinners
1998	Best Costume Design	Amistad
2019	Black Panther
2019	Dolemite Is My Name
2022	Coming 2 America
2024	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2026	Sinners
2018	Best Costume Design	Black Panther
2024	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2026	Sinners
2018	Best Costume Design	Black Panther
2019	Dolemite Is My Name
2023	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2025	Sinners
2022	Best Costume Design	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
2025	Sinners
::

• 2015: Visionary Award at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon
• 2019: Suffolk University, Honorary Degree - Doctor of Humane Letters

Bibliography

Notes

References

References

1. "Hampton University Alumna, Ruth E. Carter, to Receive Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Feb. 25".
2. (November 23, 2016). "Radical Fashion: An interview with the costume designer Ruth Carter". [[Lenny Letter]].
3. Bradley, Laura. (2018-02-16). "The Secrets Behind Black Panther's Spellbinding Fashion". [[Vanity Fair (magazine).
4. Coggan, Devan. (February 24, 2019). "Ruth E. Carter makes Oscar history as first black woman to win Best Costume Design".
5. Tangcay, Jazz. (March 12, 2023). "Ruth E. Carter Becomes First Black Woman to Win Two Oscars". Variety.
6. Davis, Clayton. (2026-01-22). "‘Sinners’ Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Becomes Most-Nominated Black Woman in Oscar History".
7. Landrum Jr., Jonathan. (March 13, 2023). "Ruth E. Carter becomes 1st Black woman to win 2 Oscars". KKTV.
8. Herman, Vallie. (June 2015). "Spotlight On: Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter".
9. Platanitis, Sarah. (February 22, 2015). "Hollywood costume designer Ruth Carter talks about her roots in Springfield and Oscar nods". [[The Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts).
10. Landis, Deborah Nadoolman. (2003). "Costume Design". [[Focal Press]].
11. Kirkham, Pat. (2002). "Women Designers in the USA, 1900–2000: Diversity and Difference". [[Yale University Press]].
12. (April 2, 2013). "BET Networks Announces New Programming at Annual Upfront Presentation".
13. Long, Kelle. (May 9, 2018). "''Black Panther'' Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Explains the Symbolism of Her Work".
14. "Clarks brought out Black Panther's costume designer to celebrate their new sneaker collab". The Fader.
15. Wilson, Julee. (February 24, 2019). "Ruth E. Carter Becomes The First Black Woman To Win Oscar For Best Costume Design".
16. "Ruth E. Carter - Biography".
17. Tangcay, Jazz. (February 24, 2021). "Ruth E. Carter Makes History With a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame". Variety.
18. (February 6, 2023). "Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design".
19. Shoard, Catherine. (January 22, 2026). "Sinners becomes first film in history to earn 16 Oscar nominations".
20. Blauvelt, Christian. (2020-08-28). "Ruth E. Carter Preserves Black History Through Fashion".
21. "Ruth E. Carter Awards".
22. Jet]]'', July 22, 2002.
23. Mack, Grace. "FashFilmFete festival to celebrate iconic costume designers, fashion in film".
24. "'Essence' honoree Ruth Carter's accidental Hollywood career".
25. (2023-05-24). "Why Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter feels great about the state of Hollywood".
26. "Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Gives Glimpses at Her Legendary Career in Debut Book (Exclusive)".

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