PEMON RAMI is a multi-talented individual—a celebrated author, international film producer, director, and influential member of various arts boards, including the Illinois Arts Council and the Luminary Board of the Independent Film Alliance. He also serves as a professor at Loyola University and previously held the role of Director of Educational and Public Programs at the DuSable Museum of African American History from 2011 to 2016.
In 1967, the distinguished playwright Ted Ward established the South Side Center for the Performing Arts at 108 E. 35th Street. At just seventeen, Pemon assisted Ted and, in 1969, Mr. Ward entrusted him with directing his first professional theatre production. The insights he gained during this time, from reading Ted’s numerous plays and witnessing spirited discussions on theater and acting, proved to be invaluable.
While still a teenager, Pemon landed a recurring role in Bird of the Iron Feather, the groundbreaking first Black soap opera on television. He also made appearances in significant films, including The Spook Who Sat by The Door and Mahogany. As a former casting director, he was instrumental in sourcing talent for iconic films such as Blues Brothers, Mahogany, Cooley High, Dummy, The Monkey Hustle, The Marva Collins Story, and One in a Million. His film producing credits include the Of Boys and Men, starring Angela Bassett and Robert Townsend, as well as 93 Days, filmed in Lagos, Nigeria, and featuring Danny Glover. This project earned him nominations for an African Academy Award and an African People’s Choice Award. Most recently, he produced A Boy Named Bobby and the documentary Living His Life Loudly, both set to premiere in 2025.
Pemon’s achievements have been recognized widely; he was inducted into the Wendell Phillips High School Hall of Fame in 2014 and was included in the HistoryMakers Digital Archive at the Library of Congress in 2019. In 2023, he became one of the inaugural inductees into the Chicago Black Arts Hall of Fame. He was interviewed by Eve Ewing for Columbia University’s Jacqueline Woodson oral history project, titled “I See My Light Shining: An Oral History of Our Elders.” His memoir, When Blackness Was Golden – Observations from the Front Line, was published in 2022.
Pemon is featured on a mural at the Friend Health Clinic, located at 1522 E. 63rd Street in Chicago. May 4, 2025, Pemon celebrated 50 years of marriage to Maséqua Myers, the former executive director of the South Side Community Center. Together, they have two children, eleven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Bio as of 7/2025