Rick Cooley

Rick Cooley is an LA-based actor and entrepreneur. In his late teens and early twenties he traveled the state fair circuit east of the Mississippi in the summer and fall as a professional weight, age and birth month guesser. He started doing print work and commercials in Cleveland and Chicago then moved to NYC in the height of the Studio 54 era. He worked with the legendary Wilhelmina, when she was running the agency doing domestic and international print work and commercials. Rick began acting in NYC with some of the best acting coaches in the business. Friday nights he tended bar at the infamous West Bank Café in the heart of Hell's Kitchen, when Hell's Kitchen was still Hell's Kitchen, where he met wonderful actors and artists from Tennessee Williams to the original cast of Saturday Night Live. Rick got his first break when he produced and was featured in a one act play written & directed by Michael Schulman. His great reviews led to a role on Love Boat which gave sent him to Los Angeles for a week, but he never left! He then booked a reccurring role on the TV series Dynasty. Through his connections in entertainment, Rick made his way into the decorative lighting business. He founded a custom decorative lighting company and built the company that fabricated more custom lighting fixtures for the casino industry in the history of Las Vegas such as the Wynn Casinos, Caesars Palace and the Cosmopolitan. The company today is Alger-Triton International, recognized as the finest custom lighting company for the hospitality industry in the world. Rick is now a partner in the RED O restaurants along with designing and fabricating all the decorative lighting fixtures for the restaurants. Red O's cuisine is inspired by celebrity chef Rick Bayless. Current locations are Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Newport Beach and La Jolla, with plans to expand to other major cities. He is also partnering with a resort development company in multiple locations. Recently, Rick has returned to acting classes, studying with Aaron Speiser for the past three years.