Singleton's 1991 film debut Boyz n the Hood, an inner city drama starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ice Cube, and Laurence Fishburne, was both a significant critical and commercial success. For his efforts, Singleton received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. At age 24 he was the youngest person ever nominated for Best Director, and the first African-American to be nominated for the award (four others, Lee Daniels, Steve McQueen, Barry Jenkins and Jordan Peele, have been nominated since). The film has since attained classic status and, in 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.