Kendrick Lamar, Questlove, Chuck D Invited to Oscars Academy


Kendrick Lamar, Questlove, Chuck D and Melissa Etheridge are among the record-setting 928 members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that oversees the Oscars.

Other new members from the music world include Prince & The Revolutions Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin, Sufjan Stevens, German pianist Hauschka, French composer Eric Serra and singer Ester Dean.

Of the 928 new members, 49 percent are women, pushing the Academys total female membership to 31 percent. Thirty-eight percent of the new members are people of color, improving the Academys overall percentage to 16 percent.

The push to add more women and people of color to the Academy continues former president Cheryl Boone Isaacs goal to diversify the Academy by 2020. In 2014, the lack of people of color in the major Oscar categories sparked the #OscarsSoWhite campaign; in 2016, it was revealed that the Academy was 92 percent white and 75 percent male.

Actors (including Get Outs Daniel Kaluuya, Black Panthers Danai Gurira, Game of Thrones Emilia Clarke and Jada Pinkett Smith, who boycotted the Oscars in 2016 over their lack of diversity), comedians (Dave Chappelle, Sarah Silverman, Tiffany Haddish and Hannibal Buress), directors (Call Me By Your Names Luca Guadagnino, Michel Gondry, Bela Tarr, Its Andy Muschietti and The Riders Chloe Zhao) and more were also invited to join the Academy.

Check out the complete list of 928 Academy invitees at Variety.