Winsome Sinclair, Casting Director for Spike Lee, Passes Away at 58

Winsome Sinclair, the casting director known for her work on films like Waiting to Exhale, Amistad, Precious, The Best Man, and many movies directed by Spike Lee, has passed away at the age of 58.

Sinclair passed away on Monday while in hospice care on Long Island after battling colon cancer for an extended period, according to her publicist Clorissa Wright-Thomas, as told to The Hollywood Reporter. She was surrounded by her family.

Born in New York, Winsome Sinclair founded the global casting agency Winsome Sinclair and Associates in 1996. The agency started in New York and later moved to Atlanta in 2014, a shift driven by the city’s booming film production industry.

Sinclair’s career included casting extras for John Singleton’s features like Higher Learning (1995), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and Abduction (2011), as well as for Malcolm D. Lee’s The Best Man (1999) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016).

She also worked on the casting for Dee Rees’ films Pariah (2011) and Bessie (2015). Her impressive resume extended to handling similar duties for the Hughes brothers’ Dead Presidents (1995), Forest Whitaker’s Waiting to Exhale (1995), Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997), Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan (2006), and Lee Daniels’ Precious (2009).

Early in her career, Sinclair served as a casting intern on Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues (1990) and went on to collaborate with him on several more projects, including Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), Get on the Bus (1996), He Got Game (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), 25th Hour (2002), She Hate Me (2004), Inside Man (2006), Miracle at St. Anna (2008), and Red Hook Summer (2012).

Winsome G.M. Sinclair was born on Long Island on October 27, 1965. Her parents, Walter and Shirley, immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica. She completed her education at Uniondale High School and Florida A&M University before embarking on her career in casting.

Her first credit as a casting director came with Hype Williams’ Belly (1998), which starred Nas and DMX. Over the years, her casting portfolio also included films such as Cadillac Records (2008), Sparkle (2012), the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me (2017), and Nappily Ever After (2018), as well as the BET series Being Mary Jane.

Sinclair was also a film producer, working on projects like Maynard, a 2017 documentary about Maynard Jackson Jr., the first Black mayor of Atlanta.

In 2017, Sinclair adopted two brothers, Micah and Kairo, who are now 10 and 8 years old, respectively. They were the inspiration for her 2020 book, You Are My SONshines. She is survived by her children, her parents, and her brothers Nick, Mark, Barry, and Kirk, as well as numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to support her children.

Reflecting on her life, producer and publicist Cassandra Butcher shared on Instagram, “Winsome brought light to everyone she encountered, with a unique ability to see more in people than they could see in themselves. Her passion for the arts and her deep love for family and community will continue to inspire those who know her. Winsome’s legacy in the film industry and the lives she touched will live on, reminding us of her vibrant spirit and the stories she helped bring to life.”

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