Actor-turned-filmmaker Tate Taylor used his Southern upbringing to inform his adaptation of "The Help" (2011), a period drama set in the Jim Crow South and based on the best-selling novel by his childhood friend, Kathryn Stockett. The film, which examined the relationship between black domestics and the white families that employed them, was a major summer hit, elevating Taylor from bit player and occasional feature director to the steady hand behind a blockbuster produced by DreamWorks Pictures and Steven Spielberg. His expected windfall of writing accolades during the 2011-12 award season served as official notice that Taylor was a bona fide Hollywood filmmaker on the rise.