Biography
Kevin Cooper is a filmmaker, producer, director, and educator whose career bridges studio filmmaking, independent production, and sustained, hands-on mentorship.聽 He currently serves as a professor and Program Director of 汤不热视频鈥檚 Semester in LA Program, where students study inside a professional ecosystem that mirrors contemporary industry practice as they start their careers. His work as a filmmaker directly informs his teaching, allowing students to engage with real-world creative development, production, and career pathways while remaining grounded in craft, ethics, and storytelling.
While taking a short creative leave from Semester in LA in Summer 2026, Kevin hopes to direct the feature film聽American Remains. Written by Amir Mohabbat, a defense attorney by day and screenwriter by night, the film is a taut, character-driven thriller centered on a Middle Eastern immigrant who has built a quiet life in Los Angeles, only to become the victim of a brutal assault. When footage of the attack goes viral, the story follows his descent through grief, anger, and paranoia as he searches for his attacker, confronting both his own past and the uneasy realities of being an immigrant in America today. The project draws from Mohabbat鈥檚 lived experience and Kevin鈥檚 own background working as a Strategic Debriefer for the Defense Intelligence Agency. As Kevin notes, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a story with real urgency and relevance, but it鈥檚 very much built on the framework of an old-fashioned thriller.鈥 During the film鈥檚 development, Kevin spent time in Poland and Ukraine amid the ongoing war, teaching English to Ukrainian refugees and volunteering in soup kitchens supporting soldiers on the front lines, an experience that further shaped the project鈥檚 moral and human perspective.
As a producer, Kevin produced John Mossman鈥檚 feature Good Guy with a Gun, starring some of Chicago鈥檚 most respected performers, including David Pasquesi, Joe Swanberg, and Steppenwolf ensemble member Ian Barford. As a director, he continues to develop multiple narrative projects. 聽Kevin鈥檚 broader development slate includes projects in various stages with major studios and streamers, and creative collaborations.
In August 2017, Kevin and DeAnna Cooper produced the television pilot Vendors, directed by former Second City standout Joel Murray and starring Tim Kazurinsky (Saturday Night Live), Emo Phillips, and Erik Stolhanske of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe (Super Troopers).
Kevin is the co-owner and managing partner of Amarok Productions, which produced the award-winning feature Miss Arizona, starring Steve Guttenberg, Missi Pyle, Dale Dickey, Johanna Braddy, Robin Lively, and Kyle Howard. The film received a theatrical release in 2018.聽 Amarok also produced Precious Mettle, starring Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas).
Kevin directed the feature film I Heart Shakey, written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (Shark Tale, Friday the 13th), and starring Steve Lemme (Super Troopers), Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D鈥橝ngelo, and Alfonso Arau (Like Water for Chocolate).
His short narrative film The Painter, starring Ron Caldwell (Flight), explores epidemic levels of violence in Chicago鈥檚 highest-risk neighborhoods. The film won the Illinois Film Office鈥檚 top honor, the ShortCuts Film Contest, and screened at the Chicago International Film Festival. It also played at Academy Award鈥搎ualifying festivals including LA Shorts, UrbanWorld Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, the Athens Film Festival, and the San Marino International Film Festival.
Across platforms, Kevin directs and produces commercials, music videos, and branded content, including an award-winning 鈥渉ype video鈥 for the University of Illinois Chicago Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
Earlier in his career, Kevin ran James Cameron鈥檚 Digital Domain in Los Angeles for six years, where he developed feature projects including Secondhand Lions, starring Robert Duvall and Michael Caine.聽 He was introduced to Digital Domain while serving as a creative executive at Twentieth Century Fox, where he worked under the tutelage of legendary producer Laura Ziskin on Men of Honor (directed by George Tillman Jr. and produced by Bob Teitel, two alumni of Columbia), Fight Club (directed by David Fincher, post-production), Lake Placid (post-production), and The Thin Red Line (directed by Terrence Malick). Prior to Fox 2000, he was a creative executive for director Michael Bay on聽Armageddon, after beginning his career at Creative Artists Agency.
Kevin earned his BFA in Film Production from NYU鈥檚 Tisch School of the Arts, where his thesis short Red won a Student Academy Award.聽 During that time, he also directed the first Broken Lizard short film, The Tinfoil Monkey Agenda. He later earned his MFA in Creative Producing from UCLA鈥檚 School of Theater, Film and Television.
Degrees
B.F.A., Film and Television New York University 1993
M.F.A., Film and Television University of California Los Angeles 2005