Biography
Kevin CooperThis summer, Kevin spent two weeks in Poland where he taught English and basic filmmaking skills to Ukrainian Refugees between the ages of 8-12 years old, which was a cherished opportunity to support people who have escaped the Russia-Ukraine War. As a producer, he is currently in post-production on a John Mossman-directed feature film entitled Good Guy with a Gun that stars a host of Chicago’s top actors including David Pasquesi, Joe Swanberg, and Steppenwolf’s Ian Barford. As a director, Kevin is prepping his next film to shoot in January 2023 about a tractor trailer full of immigrants on the Mexican-Texas Border who ultimately find that they did not make it to the "Land of Freedom," did not make it across the border to the U.S. They are right back where the started, a journey that includes the birth of a child inside, water that runs out, limited air, high temperatures, and a killer inside what becomes a very small place. Award-winning (Columbia alum) producer John Condne (Minimal Productions/ renamed Take Care) is producing the film, which is being written by Amir Mohabbat. His current development slate includes projects at various Hollywood Studios/ Streamers alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jay Pharoah, Sterling K. Brown, Jim O’Heir, Simu Liu/ Andy Chang (Shang Chi), Chicago-rappers Mick Jenkins and Vic Mensa and lauded Chicago poet Kevin Coval. In August 2017, Kevin and DeAnna Cooper produced the pilot for the TV Show “Vendors,” directed by former Second City star Joel Murray, starring Tim Kazurinsky (Saturday Night Live), comic Emo Phillips and Erik Stolhanske (from Broken Lizard Comedy Troop, which made Super Troopers). Kevin owns and co-manages Amarok Productions, which produced the award-winning feature film Miss Arizona starring Steve Guttenberg, Missi Pyle, Dale Dickey, Johanna Braddy, Robin Lively and Kyle Howard released in 2018. Kevin works across platforms, directing and producing commercials, music videos and a recent award-winning ‘hype video’ for the University of Illinois Chicago’s Emergency Department Residency Program. His narrative work includes The Painter starring Ron Caldwell (appeared in Flight with Denzel Washington), a fictional story about how the epidemic levels of violence in Chicago’s high-risk neighborhoods. The Painter won the Illinois Film Office’s top prize: “ShortCuts Film Contest” and screened at the Chicago International Film Festival. It also screened at Academy Award qualifying festivals L.A.Shorts, NYC’s UrbanWorld Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Athens Film Festivals and San Marino International Film Festival. In 2013, Amarok Productions produced Precious Mettle, which stars Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas). Kevin directed the feature film I Heart Shakey written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (Sharktale) starring Steve Lemme (Super Troopers), Steve Guttenberg (Diner, Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby), Beverly D’Angelo (Vacation movies) and Alfonso Arau (acclaimed director of Like Water for Chocolate and actor in Three Amigos). Prior to starting the upstart Chicago-based production company, Kevin ran James Cameron’s Digital Domain in Los Angeles for six years, where he developed feature projects, such as Secondhand Lions that starred Robert Duvall and Michael Caine. Kevin was introduced to Digital Domain while employed at Twentieth Century Fox serving as a creative executive on films like Men of Honor starring Robert DeNiro & Cuba Gooding Jr., directed by George Tillman (production), Fight Club directed by David Fincher (post-production), Lake Placid (post-production), and Thin Red Line by Terry Mallick. Kevin worked as a creative executive for director Michael Bay on Armageddon and started out at Creative Artists Agency. In 1993, Kevin received a B.F.A. in Production from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where his short thesis film Red won the Student Academy Awards and he directed the first Broken Lizard film, The Tinfoil Monkey Agenda. Later, Kevin received his MFA from UCLA's School of Theater, Film and TV.
Degrees
B.F.A., Film and Television New York University 1993
M.F.A., Film and Television University of California Los Angeles 2005