Crystal R. Emery

Crystal Renee Emery is a filmmaker and founder and CEO of URU The Right To Be, Inc., a nonprofit content production company.^[1] She is an If/Then ambassador and was featured in the Smithsonian's "#IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit", a collection of life-sized 3D-printed statues of role models in STEM.^[2]

Crystal R. Emery
Other names	Crystal Emery-Kerr

Crystal R. Emery and Nana Acquah, on stage at Bregamos Theatre Comedy Show on April 5, 2025.

Early life and education

Emery grew up in the Brookside neighborhood of New Haven.^[3] Her interest in filmmaking started from a young age.^[4] In the third grade, she started directing plays with her brothers. By fifth grade she wrote and directed her first play about Harriet Tubman's work to free people who were enslaved.^[5][6]

Emery has a B.A. from the University of Connecticut (1985)^[7] and then worked as an apprentice in theater with Lloyd Richards^[8] and as a production assistant for Bill Duke.^[9] She went on to sharpen her producing skills under the tutelage of Suzanne de Passe during the filming of The Jacksons: An American Dream (1991–1992).^[10] She returned to the East Coast to New York City and She then moved to New York City and earned an M.A. in media studies from The New School of Public Engagement.^[2] In 2018 she received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Connecticut (2018).^[8]

In 2018, Emery was the keynote speaker for the graduation of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences where she received two standing ovations from crowds of over 10,000 people.^[11]

Career

Emery began directing plays while she was in college.^[12] She has directed multiple documentary films including The Deadliest Disease in America^[13][14] and Changing the Face of Medicine.^[15] In 2010^[16] she began working on the documentary Black Women in Medicine in which she interviews seven black physicians and combines the interviews with historical videos from the 1950s and 1960s.^[17] The film was well-received, having a theatrical run in 2016 and later airing on American Public Television. It was also screened internationally as part of the American Film Showcase.^[18]

Her written works include Sweet Nez,^[9][19] the play A Way Out of No Way^[20] and a book titled Against All Odds, which features 100 prominent Black women medical doctors.^[15] She worked on a virtual reality game called You Can't Be What You Can't See which allows players to step into a virtual reality world as a medical professional.^[21]

She is a member of the Producers Guild of America and New York Women in Film and Television. Emery has also served as an If/Then Ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where she was featured in the Smithsonian's #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit, a collection of life-sized 3D-printed statues of women in STEM.^[22]

In January 2025, Crystal launched her comedy career as an opener for Michelle Buteau at the Bellhouse Theatre in New York.^[23] Crystal's first self-published book, Without a Trace, is available on Amazon.^[24]

Personal life

While in college, Emery was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a degenerative nerve disease^[7] and she lives with quadriplegia and diabetes.^[13]