Bio

AN INDUSTRY HYPHENATE

A Chicago newspaper reporter (Observer) once wrote that if you place Abiiba Howell in a bag, shake it up and turn it upside down, she would still come out standing on both feet. From a path that includes marathon running, modeling, motherhood, stock car racing and martial arts to makeup artist and motion picture industry veteran, Abiiba has always charted her own course.

The native Chicago filmmaker was the publicist for Mr. T until he was selected for the movie, ROCKY III. At the time, she owned and ran a limousine service and child care service from home, while a full time night student at Northwestern University. Her first limo booking was the Rolling Stones and O’Jay’s Chicago tour stop. Abiiba’s career was launched years later as a film and television Makeup Artist before acquiring writer, producer, director,  production manager and coordinator credits on Chicago, Texas and Hollywood film and television projects.

Founding Dominion Films in 1997 as a means to develop and produce her own projects, she began making her mark right away by writing, producing and directing four of her own short movies and creating two cable television shows. The company soon began providing production services for production companies and record labels, among other clients. However, after being stiffed on final payment from a record label years ago, the company stopped working on music videos, instead focusing on movies, documentaries, commercials and television programming.

Production services, development and training form the heart and soul of Dominion Films. Abiiba wrote, produced and directed her own: Aging With Grace; Total Control (screened at the Museum of Fine Art, Houston); Fantasy in Pink (Finalist, Gulf Coast Film Festival) and The Accident (based on the award-winning story of the same name, by James Garcia).

Abiiba’s work as producer includes commercials, cable broadcast shows, music projects, documentaries, independent movies, PSA’s and interactive multimedia content for the internet.  She has been the Production Supervisor for several projects, including: VISA: China to Houston with Yao Ming; Learning About for the Family Channel, George Foreman’s Knockout Household Cleaning infomercials and other projects.

Her profile of the formerly homeless, now respected, environmental artist, Charles Washington, has garnered awards and recognition, including at the Gulf Coast Film Festival in 2011.  Documentary projects include: The A.F. Project, Career School Nightmare, Don’t Get Hurt in Texas, and more. She has written numerous screenplays and developed and co-wrote the screenplay, Mind of Lunatic, with her interest for sale.

Abiiba was the Texas Assistant Production Coordinator for the HBO and Billy Bob Thornton film Don’t Look Back; Production Coordinator for the London Weekend Television show, The Jogger and Production Coordinator for House on Todville Road (Third Coast Entertainment/Showtime (before moving over as Makeup/Hair department head and Key Makeup/FX). She was the Production Manager for The Dark Dancer (Third Coast Entertainment/Showtime), Material Witness (Simba Films); Holyfield: Showdown at the Garden (Showtime Networks); Pirate Island of Jean Laffite (playing at the Great Storm Theater in Galveston, TX since 1997); and Production Coordinator and Casting Director for Prithvi (India) and numerous other productions.

Abiiba’s award-winning makeup and hair work may be seen on numerous projects including: Boo Boo Bandits, The Billion Dollar Buyer (CNBC), Love Land, Return to Vengeance, Burned Soul, Somebody Up There Likes Me, *The Trap, *It’s About Life on Earth (NASA), Space Troopers, Destitution, *The Big Picture Review With Fiskel and Hebert, The Man Who Came Back, (Carol Alt, Sean Young, George Kennedy and Jennifer O’Dell), MindSight, Suddenly Unexpected, Arlington Road, Hope, Children of the Corn: The Gathering (Karen Black, Naomi Watts, Samaria Graham), House on Todville Road, Rough Riders, Two for Texas, The Chase, *Hurricane in a Double-Wide, Space Marines, America’s Dream, Hidden Obsession, The Independent Jury (trailer) and countless other features and short films, as well as numerous music videos and commercials. (See: IMDB listing). She has worked directly with talent at all levels of celebrity. (*=award winning)

Under her Casting Director hat, Abiiba: cast more than 450 people for TIN CUP; cast Houston’s 2012 Olympic Bid commercial; was the Texas Casting Director for HBO’s Breast Men; the Casting Director for William Katt’s The Clean and Narrow; Casting Director (also Production Manager) for Pirate Island of Jean Laffite and many others.

In 2002, Abiiba founded Film Expo Texas, an annual film industry event, including workshops, exhibits, screenings and contests, to help raise production standards and make the industry and its resources more accessible to everyone. She continues to help open doors for industry newcomers through her signature, Getting Into the Movies workshops, offered through Dominion Films, some of which she has led since 1991.

She has been an invited guest speaker at: University of Houston, Houston Independent School District, Hightower High School, Houston Community College Filmmakers Academy, Lee College, Aldine Independent School District, Scriptwriters/Houston, Texas Southern University and others. She has appeared as herself on Candid Camera and was featured on the Debra Duncan Show with Shelly Duvall and Loretta Devine, in addition to hosting episodes of The Independent Movie Show.

A former voting member of the Independent Spirit Awards and a Blue Ribbon Panel Judge for the Emmy Awards since 2010, Abiiba has held longtime memberships in various industry organizations and associations while remaining active in two IATSE local unions. In 2011, She took on the challenge of helping to bring attention to the plight of homeless people by writing and publishing an extensive research article on homelessness, garnering an award for professional communication and presentation.  While Abiiba’s specialty areas lie in motion picture and multimedia production management she still continues to wear her Makeup Artist hat as time permits.

In the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Harvey, Abiiba turned her attention to the world of reality television and documentaries, working on more than 30 projects during 2018 alone, creating a new area of focus. The year 2018 also saw introduced a new management client, Monie Cashette (Little Women: Atlanta), the first since the  work for Mr. T. as publicist.

Armed with a B.S. in Business (Entertainment, Finance, Marketing); a M.A. in New Media Journalism and a M.S. in Marketing from Full Sail University, she has a nearly complete doctorate in Business Administration: Marketing. Prior education includes: HR Management, Personnel Administration and Organizational Behavior (Northwestern University); Communications and Labor Relations (Roosevelt University) and Business Planning (City Colleges of Chicago).

Abiiba believes that knowledge and skills should be shared and volunteers her time when possible..  In her spare time, she also creates art from recycled materials for her mobile studio, Re-Think Art.