Ryan Coogler

Ryan Kyle Coogler (born May 23, 1986) 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.

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 juvenile hall probation counselor.

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 until age eight, when the family moved to Richmond, California.

During his youth, he ran track and played football.

He went to a private Catholic high school, Saint Mary's College High School in Berkeley, California, and did well in math and science.

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.

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.

As a student athlete coming up in the Bay Area, Coogler befriended and often played against NFL running back Marshawn Lynch.

After Saint Mary's canceled its football program in March 2004, 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.

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.

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.

In 2013, Coogler wrote and directed his first feature-length film, Fruitvale Station (originally titled Fruitvale), which told the story of the last 24 hours of the life of Oscar Grant (played by Michael B. Jordan), who was shot to death by a police officer at Oakland's Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009.

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.

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.

In 2013, he was included on Time 's list of the 30 people under 30 who are changing the world.

Produced by Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker, the film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the top Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic competition and was released in theatres on July 20, 2013.

Made on a budget of $900,000, the film grossed over $17 million worldwide after its theatrical run.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "a gut punch of a movie" and "an unstoppable cinematic force".

A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote that Coogler's "hand-held shooting style evokes the spiritually alert naturalism of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne".

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a compelling debut" and "a powerful dramatic feature film".

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a score of 94% based on 195 reviews, with a critical consensus that reads: "Passionate and powerfully acted, Fruitvale Station serves as a celebration of life, a condemnation of death, and a triumph for star Michael B. Jordan."

The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2013.

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.

Coogler also co-wrote and directed its sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).

Coogler's films have received widespread acclaim and commercial success.

His work has been hailed by critics for centering on often overlooked cultures and characters—most notably African Americans.

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.

In 2015, Coogler released his second film, Creed, a spin-off of the Rocky films, which Coogler directed and co-wrote with Aaron Covington.

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. In 2021, Coogler, his wife, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian founded multimedia company Proximity Media to create event-driven content across various platforms.