26 Facts About Ryan Coogler

Ryan Kyle Coogler was born on May 23,1986 and is an American filmmaker.

Ryan Coogler is a recipient of four NAACP Image Awards, four Black Reel Awards, a Golden Globe Award nomination, and two Academy Award nominations.

Ryan Coogler made his feature-length debut with the independent film Fruitvale Station, which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for US dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Ryan Coogler has since co-written and directed films such as the Rocky series spinoff, Creed, and the Marvel film Black Panther, the latter of which broke numerous box office records and became the highest-grossing film of all time by an African American director.

In 2018, Ryan 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.

Ryan Coogler was born on May 23,1986, in Oakland, California.

Ryan Coogler's mother, Joselyn, is a community organizer, and his father, Ira Coogler, is a juvenile hall probation counselor.

Ryan Coogler's uncle, Clarence Thomas, is a third-generation Oakland longshoreman, and the former secretary treasurer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Ryan Coogler lived in Oakland until age eight, when the family moved to Richmond, California.

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

Ryan 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.

Ryan Coogler's teacher praised his work, noting that it was very visual, and encouraged him to learn screenwriting.

In 2013, Coogler wrote and directed his first feature-length film, Fruitvale Station, which told 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.

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

In 2018, Ryan Coogler co-wrote and directed the Marvel film Black Panther, making him the first black Marvel Studios director.

In 2021, Coogler served as a co-producer alongside Charles D King and Shaka King on the Fred Hampton biopic Judas and the Black Messiah, directed by Shaka King, which focused on the betrayal of Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in late-1960s Chicago, by William O'Neal.

That same year, Ryan Coogler served as co-producer on the Space Jam sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring LeBron James.

Ryan Coogler served as co-writer and director on the Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which was released in the United States on November 11,2022.

Ryan Coogler served as an executive producer on the ESPN 30 for 30 film The Day the Series Stopped, about Game Three of the 1989 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, when an earthquake shook the Bay Area to its core.

In January 2013, Ryan Coogler said he was working on a graphic novel and young adult novel about an undisclosed subject matter.

Ryan Coogler served as an executive producer on Creed II, and has written the story outline for the upcoming Creed III.

Ryan 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.

Ryan Coogler is a founding member and supporter of the Blackout For Human Rights campaign, which is committed to addressing racial and human rights violations happening throughout the United States.

Ryan Coogler married Zinzi Evans in 2016, with whom he has two children.

In January 2022, Ryan Coogler was wrongly targeted as a bank robber and detained by the police in Atlanta, Georgia, after he tried to withdraw cash in the local branch of the Bank of America.

Once his identity was verified with both his California state ID card and his Bank of America card, Ryan Coogler was released and the bank issued an apology statement.