Jayme Lawson Makes Her Directorial Debut With Short Film ‘I Got You’

 

Jayme Lawson is adding director to her résumé. The actress has made her directorial debut with I Got You, a short film she also wrote and stars in.

Presented by Quartermaster Creative, the film made its world premiere at the 29th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival in Savannah, Georgia, which ran October 24–31, 2026.

Lawson is joined on screen by Motell Foster, Joshua Boone, Elise Taylor, Morgana Van Peebles, Blaire Brooks, Joy Decker, Aubrey J. Carter and Vanessa Magula.

The project also brings together a creative team that includes producers Nicole Palermo, Kelli Reilly and Jade Lewis, with Connie Huang serving as cinematographer.

For audiences who have followed Lawson's career, her work includes some of the biggest film releases of recent years. In Ryan Coogler's Sinners, she played Pearline, a singer at the center of the film's 1930s Mississippi setting. Her performance was part of an ensemble that helped bring the film's musical and supernatural world to life.

Before that, Lawson played Bella Reál in Matt Reeves' The Batman, portraying the Gotham City mayoral candidate who challenges the city's established leadership. She later reprised the role in HBO's The Penguin.

More recently, Lawson stars in Edgar Wright's The Running Man as Sheila Richards, the wife of Glen Powell's character, Ben Richards. The film, based on Stephen King's novel, adds another major studio production to her growing filmography.

Her other credits include The Woman King, Till, How to Blow Up a Pipeline and the Showtime series The First Lady, in which she portrayed a young Michelle Obama.

With I Got You, Lawson takes on a different role in the filmmaking process. Having worked with directors across film and television, she's now bringing her own story to the screen, this time from behind the camera.