Ryan Coogler Biography

Ryan Kyle Coogler (born May 23, 1986) is an American film director and screenwriter. His first feature film, Fruitvale Station, won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Early and personal life

Coogler was born on May 23, 1986 in Oakland, California. His mother, Joselyn (née Thomas), is a community organizer, and his father, Ira Coogler, is a probation officer. Both parents graduated from California State University, Hayward. He has two brothers Noah and Keenan. His uncle, Clarence Thomas, is a third-generation Oakland longshoreman, and the former secretary treasurer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Coogler lived in Oakland, California until age eight when he moved to Richmond, California. During his youth, he ran track and played football. He went to a private Catholic school and was good at math and science. He attended Saint Mary's College of California on a football scholarship, playing as a wide receiver, to study chemistry. While he was there, his English professor Rosemary Graham encouraged him to pursue a career in screenwriting. After Saint Mary's canceled its football program, he received another scholarship to attend Sacramento State, where he majored in finance and took film classes. He then attended USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he made a series of short films.

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. He is engaged to Zinzi Evans.

Career

While at USC, Coogler directed three award-winning short films: Locks (Tribeca Film Festival, Dana and Albert Broccoli Award for Filmmaking Excellence), Gap (Jack Nicholson Award for Achievement in Directing), and Fig (HBO Short Filmmaking Award, DGA Student Filmmaker Award).

His first feature-length film, Fruitvale (later retitled Fruitvale Station), tells the story of the last 24 hours of the life of Oscar Grant, who was shot to death by a police officer at Oakland's Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009. The film was developed and produced by Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker. "I've worked with a number of truly unique voices, true auteurs," Whitaker said of Coogler, "and I can tell when I'm talking to one."

After the film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film, The Weinstein Company acquired the distribution rights for approximately US$2 million. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best First Film. As of January 2013, Coogler was working on a graphic novel and a young adult novel. In July 2013, it was reported that MGM had offered Coogler to direct Creed, an upcoming spinoff of the Rocky films. He could reunite with Michael B. Jordan should Jordan accept the role of Apollo Creed.