Ryan Coogler
Ryan Kyle Coogler (born May 23, 1986)[1] is an American filmmaker. He is a recipient of four NAACP Image Awards and four Black Reel Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award.
Ryan Coogler
- Film director
- screenwriter
- producer
2009–present
He made his feature-length debut with the independent film Fruitvale Station (2013), which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. It also won at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, for Best First Film.[2]
He has since co-written and directed films such as the Rocky series spinoff, Creed (2015), and the Marvel film Black Panther (2018), the latter of which broke numerous box office records and became the highest-grossing film of all time by an African American director.[3] Coogler also co-wrote and directed its sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).
Coogler's films have received widespread acclaim and commercial success.[4] His work has been hailed by critics for centering on often overlooked cultures and characters—most notably African Americans.[5][6] He frequently collaborates with actor Michael B. Jordan, who appeared in all four feature films directed by Coogler, as well as composer Ludwig Göransson, who has scored all of his films.[7]
In 2013, he was included on Time's list of the 30 people under 30 who are changing the world.[8] In 2018, Coogler was named the runner-up of Time's Person of the Year and he was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.[9] In 2021, Coogler, his wife, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian founded multimedia company Proximity Media to create event-driven content across various platforms.[10]
Early life[edit]
Coogler was born on May 23, 1986, in Oakland, California. His mother, Joselyn (née Thomas),[1]
is a community organizer, and his father, Ira Coogler, is a juvenile hall probation counselor. Both parents graduated from California State University, Hayward. He has two brothers, Noah and Keenan.[11] His uncle, Clarence Thomas, is a third-generation Oakland longshoreman, and the former secretary treasurer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.[12]
Coogler lived in Oakland until age eight, when the family moved to Richmond, California.[11]
During his youth, he ran track and played football.[13] He went to a private Catholic high school, Saint Mary's College High School in Berkeley, California,[14] and did well in math and science.[15][16]
Coogler attended Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California on a football scholarship as a redshirt wide receiver his college freshman semester, intending to major in chemistry.[11] The football players were encouraged to take a
creative writing course. Coogler's teacher praised his work, noting that it was very visual, and encouraged him to learn screenwriting.[16][17] As a student athlete coming up in the Bay Area, Coogler befriended and often played against NFL running back Marshawn Lynch.[18]
After Saint Mary's canceled its football program in March 2004,[19] Coogler transferred and earned a scholarship to Sacramento State, where he had 112 receptions for 1,213 yards and 6 touchdowns during his four years playing football.[20] At Sacramento, he obtained a bachelor's degree in finance and also took as many film classes as he could fit in with the rigors of college football. Following graduation, he was accepted into the highly competitive three-year master's program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he made a series of short films.[21][11]
Career[edit]
2000s: Early career[edit]
While at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Coogler directed four short films, three of which won or were nominated for various awards. Locks (2009) screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the Dana and Albert Broccoli Award for Filmmaking Excellence. Fig (2011), written by Alex George Pickering, won the HBO Short Film Competition at the American Black Film Festival, the DGA Student Film Award, and was nominated for Outstanding Independent Short Film at the Black Reel Awards. Gap (2011), written by Carol S. Lashof, won the Jack Nicholson Award for Achievement in Directing.
Personal life[edit]
Coogler has worked since age 21 as a counselor with incarcerated youth at San Francisco's Juvenile Hall, following in the footsteps of his father, who has long shared the same occupation.[54] Coogler is also a founding member[55] and supporter of the Blackout For Human Rights campaign, which is committed to addressing racial and human rights violations happening throughout the United States.[56]
Coogler married Zinzi Evans in 2016, with whom he has two children.[57]
In January 2022, Coogler was mistaken as a bank robber and detained by police in Atlanta, Georgia after he tried to withdraw cash by passing a withdrawal slip to a teller in a Bank of America branch. Once his identity was verified with both his California state ID card and his Bank of America card, Coogler was released and the bank issued a statement of apology. According to a number of sources, the teller did not check Coogler's ID to verify if he was the owner of the bank account before notifying a supervisor of a potential robbery in progress.[58][59][60][61]
