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John Coles is an acclaimed director and producer recognized for creating evocative works featuring powerful performances by some of today's most esteemed actors. He has achieved success across film, television, and theater, while his production company, Talking Wall Pictures, focuses on developing innovative feature and television projects.
Coles earned Emmy and PGA nominations for his role as Executive Producer and Director on Netflix's hit series House of Cards. His recent directing work includes The Right Stuff, the Emmy-winning Homeland, the Epix original Berlin Station, Hulu's 11/22/63, and Amazon's Mad Dogs. Additional credits include Bates Motel, Power, Damages, Justified, Sex and the City, and The West Wing. As Executive Producer, his projects include Thief, Elementary, Unforgettable, 3LBS, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, New Amsterdam, and Wonderland. Most recently, he served as Executive Producer on USA Network's acclaimed drama The Sinner.
At 17, Coles filmed his first full-length 16mm movie—a witty high school reinterpretation of Casablanca. While attending Amherst College, he directed a documentary about the school that aired on PBS, and shortly thereafter began producing short films for Saturday Night Live. He then worked as an editor on Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish and The Cotton Club. His feature directorial debut, Signs of Life, won the International Critics Prize at Deauville. Other feature credits include Rising Son with Matt Damon and Brian Dennehy, and Darrow starring Kevin Spacey.
Coles continues to develop original dramas through Talking Wall Pictures, which produced the CBS drama Songs in Ordinary Time (based on the Oprah Book Club selection) starring Sissy Spacek and Beau Bridges, and co-created and executive produced the series Crash and Burn. Talking Wall has collaborated on numerous projects with HBO, CBS, New Line, IFC, and Bravo, working with acclaimed writers such as Academy Award nominee Mike Weller (Hair), Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright (Quills), Kate Robin (Six Feet Under), and Ann Peacock (Nights in Rodanthe).
In theater, Coles was a member of the Circle Rep Lab and studied under Wynn Handman at the American Place Theater. His Off-Broadway directing credits include the critically praised play The Impostor, starring Austin Pendleton and Calista Flockhart, as well as Johnny Suede, featuring Tom DiCillo.
Coles resides in New York. He is a Sundance Director’s Lab alumnus and has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the School of Visual Arts.
