Biografia
Since July 2015, actor, filmmaker, and activist Matthew Cooke's social justice and advocacy videos have been viewed over 100 million times on Facebook, with shares and promotion from the ACLU, World Star Hip Hop, Bernie Sanders, Cornel West, Susan Sarandon, Julian Lennon, DL Hughley, Adrian Grenier, RYOT.org, FilmingCops.org, The Anti-Media, The Free Thought Project, and many others.
In 2016, the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign commissioned Cooke to produce endorsement videos featuring Sanders, Mark Ruffalo, Rosario Dawson, Danny DeVito, and others.
For his activism, Cooke has been invited to speak at NYU, the University of Texas, TEDx Vienna, and was honored to join Sankofa, Harry Belafonte's organization of artists advocating for social change.
Cooke began his nonfiction career as producer-editor of "Deliver Us From Evil," which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary, appeared on over 100 critics' "best of" lists, and ranks among Rotten Tomatoes' top 100 highest-rated films.
In 2010, he served as producer-editor for the acclaimed HBO documentary "Teenage Paparazzo," featuring Adrian Grenier, Matt Damon, Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Baldwin, and Rosie O'Donnell.
In 2013, Cooke wrote, directed, and narrated "How To Make Money Selling Drugs," with appearances by Eminem, 50 Cent, Susan Sarandon, Woody Harrelson, and David Simon, creator of HBO's The Wire.
The film was distributed by Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film, reaching #1 on iTunes and Amazon Prime for over six weeks. It won audience awards at every festival it screened and earned the International Documentary Association's Best Writing Award in 2013.
Cooke also served as editor, cinematographer, motion graphics designer, and art director on "How To Make Money Selling Drugs."
In 2014, Cooke and Emmy-winning producer Steve DeVore began working on "Survivors Guide to Prison" (executive produced by Susan Sarandon), featuring The Prophets of Rage members Tom Morello, Chuck D, B-Real, RZA, Q-Tip, as well as Quincy Jones, Patricia Arquette, Deepak Chopra, Russell Simmons, Brandon Boyd, Busta Rhymes, Ice-T, Danny Glover, Cynthia Nixon, Warren G, and others. The project was produced by David and Christina Arquette and Gina Belafonte.
In fiction, Cooke started by acting in and directing short films and comedy sketches for Fuel TV. In 2007, he wrote the screenplay sequel to "The Falcon and the Snowman," which was assigned to top agents at ICM.
Beginning in 2015, Cooke developed the science fiction feature "Rapid Eye Movement" and "Note To Self(ish)," marking his narrative feature film debut as writer, director, and actor.
