Biography
Cindy Cowan is an Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated producer who co-founded Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) with Graham King in 1995, establishing it as a leading film production and foreign sales company.
Between 1995 and its sale to Splendid Films in 2000, IEG achieved numerous successes, including an Emmy nomination for Rent-A-Kid, starring Leslie Nielsen; Emmy, Golden Globe, and People's Choice nominations for If These Walls Could Talk, featuring Cher, Sissy Spacek, Anne Heche, and Demi Moore; and a United Nations Award for Savior, starring Dennis Quaid. IEG also found acclaim with Traffic, starring Michael Douglas and Benicio Del Toro, which won Oscars for directing, adapted screenplay, editing, and best supporting actor. Additional productions by Cowan at IEG include Very Bad Things, starring Cameron Diaz and Christian Slater, and Dr. T & the Women, directed by Robert Altman and starring Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Kate Hudson, and Liv Tyler.
After founding her production company, Cindy Cowan Entertainment, she produced Scorched, starring Woody Harrelson and Alicia Silverstone; executive produced Fifty Dead Men Walking, starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess; and produced Red Lights, featuring Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy, and Elizabeth Olsen. Directed by Rodrigo Cortes, Red Lights opened the Sundance Film Festival in January 2012 and was the highest-selling film at the event. Cowan also completed her first low-budget horror film for the digital market, Smiley, which was released in theaters on October 12, 2012. Its trailer became a viral hit, garnering over 34 million views compared to the 20 million views of the blockbuster The Avengers.
Recent projects include the southern crime thriller Arkansas, starring Vince Vaughn and Liam Hemsworth, and the Emmy-winning documentary Miracle on 42nd Street, featuring Alicia Keys, Terrence Howard, and Samuel L. Jackson, which premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Cowan also earned a Telly Award for producing the short film La Ruta, a story about the perilous immigration journey into the United States.
Currently, Cowan is producing The Untitled 'N'Sync Project with TriStar and Lance Bass, focusing on super-fans who followed 'N'Sync during their 2001 Pop Odyssey tour. She has also set up Eye in the Sky with Millennium Films, written by Richard D'Ovidio (The Call), who also penned True Haunting, a true paranormal horror story in pre-production at Sony Studios. Additionally, she is collaborating with Jeff Thomas (Wayward Pines, Blindspot) on the elevated thriller Expiration Day and developing a female empowerment story about the girl who struck out Babe Ruth, starring Abigail Breslin.
Line of Control is in development with Gary Fleder (Runaway Jury, Homefront) attached to direct, alongside ETA, a female-driven action film slated to begin production in 2021.
Cindy Cowan Entertainment is expanding into television with projects such as Ellis Island, a historical drama about immigration in the 1910s, drawing interest from Spike Lee (Malcolm X, Inside Man, Old Boy) to direct and executive produce. Cowan is also venturing into unscripted TV with MGM on a show documenting the rebranding of Maxim Magazine to promote women's empowerment, confidence, and self-acceptance, as well as a spiritual travel series called Seekers, exploring how people worldwide maintain positivity in challenging times.
In 2019, Cowan co-founded the Omni-Cultural TV Fest with Kiki Melendez, the only TV festival supported by NATPE.
Outside of her professional work, Cowan serves on the boards of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit providing free instruments and lessons to underserved public schools; World Woman Foundation, a global community of women leaders aiming to impact one million women and girls by 2030 through skill-building and visibility; and Children Mending Hearts, an arts-based program empowering disadvantaged youth by fostering empathy and global citizenship. She also regularly contributes to Music for Relief, an organization of musicians and industry professionals aiding natural disaster survivors; We Care Solar, which provides portable solar lighting to promote safe childbirth in developing regions; and Grassroots Soccer, a health organization using soccer to support at-risk youth in developing countries.
Her humanitarian efforts earned her the 2018 Woman of The Year Award from the Women's Image Network and the 2019 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Hollywood Women's Film Institute.
Cindy Cowan graduated from Tulane University and pursued graduate studies toward a Master's Degree in Psychology at Harvard. An accomplished equestrian, she has won the "World Champion" title over five times in American Saddlebred five-gaited and equestrian horse competitions.
