About

JuVee Productions is a pioneering artist-driven Los Angeles production company committed to crafting stories across film, television, theater, interactive, and digital mediums that transcend borders and connect people. The company seeks to produce economical yet premium, sophisticated, and character-driven stories, with an emphasis on producing narratives from a diverse range of emerging and established voices alike, aiming to be a go-to creative hub where the next generation of filmmakers and artists have the space to craft dynamic stories spanning the broad spectrum of humanity.

In 2011, Viola Davis and her husband, actor Julius Tennon, founded JuVee Productions. Julius Tennon is an accomplished film, television, and theatre producer and actor with over thirty years of experience. Together, the husband-and-wife duo built JuVee into one of the entertainment industry’s most respected independent banners, driven by a shared mission to tell stories that center underrepresented voices across every medium.

JuVee’s television footprint spans both scripted and unscripted programming across major networks and streaming platforms. The Last Defense is a seven-episode docu-series exploring and exposing flaws in the American justice system by examining the death row cases of Darlie Routier and Julius Jones, tracing the paths that led both individuals to their places on death row. The series aired on ABC and stands as one of JuVee’s most impactful unscripted achievements. The company’s first scripted series, The First Lady, aired on Showtime, and its unscripted series Hungry For Answers aired on MAX. The First Lady, a sweeping anthology drama starring Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford, and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt, explored the hidden history of the East Wing of the White House and became one of the most talked-about prestige series of 2022.

JuVee Productions expanded its exclusive first-look deal with Amazon Studios to include television, in addition to extending its existing film deal, with JuVee developing and producing features as well as television series to premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.  Prior to that Amazon deal, JuVee also sold projects to ABC, HBO, Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, USA, TV One, Food Network, and Bravo.

On the film side, JuVee’s most celebrated production to date is the 2019 Amazon Studios family film Troop Zero, which starred Viola Davis and Allison Janney and garnered warm critical reception. The company’s profile rose significantly with the 2022 Sony historical epic The Woman King, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2022, and received generally positive reviews, with praise directed toward Davis’s performance and the action choreography. It was named one of the top ten films of 2022 by both the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review.

JuVee also co-produced Giving Voice (2020), a documentary following the annual August Wilson Monologue Competition, and Lila and Eve (2015), a thriller starring Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez.

JuVee’s productions have been recognized across nearly every major awards body. At the 28th Critics’ Choice Awards, The Woman King received nominations for Best Costume Design, Best Acting Ensemble, Best Director, and Best Actress for Davis. Davis also earned Best Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA Film Awards, and NAACP Image Awards for her role in that film. Davis won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her work in ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder, making her the first Black woman in history to take home that award. In the immersive and interactive space, Iago: The Green-Eyed Monster, a musical augmented reality experience developed with Verizon, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in June 2022 and won the Webby Award for Metaverse, Immersive & Virtual — Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in 2023, and was a Tribeca X Finalist. In December 2024, the Coalition for Faith and Media presented Davis and Julius Tennon with an inaugural Faith and Spirituality in Entertainment Honor for the work of their production company JuVee Productions.

JuVee’s most recent major release is the action thriller G20. The film stars Viola Davis, Anthony Anderson, Marsai Martin, Ramón Rodríguez, Antony Starr, Douglas Hodge, Elizabeth Marvel, Sabrina Impacciatore, and Clark Gregg, and was released worldwide by Amazon MGM Studios via Prime Video on April 10, 2025. In the film, when terrorists take over the G20 summit, U.S. President Danielle Sutton uses her governing and military experience to defend her family, fellow leaders, and the world.

On the television front, Prime Video ordered Rise of the Empress to series in January 2025, coming from JuVee Productions alongside Significant Productions (Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi) and Gemma Chan. Based on Julie C. Dao’s popular fantasy book series, the show is set in a fantastical ancient Asian Empire on the verge of destruction, with Crystal Liu and James Wong serving as co-showrunners and executive producers, set to premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories.

JuVee is also developing House of Games at Amazon, with Viola Davis and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II set to star and produce. Additionally, JuVee is developing a new thriller with Amazon MGM Studios and Winkler Films, from director Phillip Noyce and Oscar-winning producer Irwin Winkler. JuVee Productions In animation, JuVee is partnering with Black and Japanese-led anime studio N LITE to produce a slate of animated films, starting with Congolese epic fantasy Mfinda. JuVee Productions The company is also planning a return to South Africa to film the true story of a young African refugee’s improbable journey to the United States.

Beyond screen, JuVee continues to expand into theater — including the stage production A Rose Called Candace, running June 21–29, 2025, at The Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles  — as well as gaming, with Taria & Como, a physics-based puzzle platformer featuring a disabled protagonist, developed in partnership with Kip Henderson and Popseed Studio Inc.

With projects spanning streaming, network television, theatrical film, immersive XR, animation, theater, and gaming, JuVee Productions continues to stand as one of the most versatile and mission-driven independent production companies working in Hollywood today.