Colen C. Wiley

Born in the Bronx and raised outside of Washington, DC, Cole Wiley is an award-winning writer, director, and producer with an extraordinary passion for authenticity and empowerment in storytelling. Anchored by an upbringing that was heavily influenced by the black intellectual movements of the 20th century, he has had a professional career that has included everything from flipping burgers, to working at NASA, to waiting tables, to teaching youth as a gang avoidance counselor, to mopping floors, to graduating from Harvard Law School. A product of Hampton University and the NYU Graduate Film Program, Cole has been featured as one of "10 Filmmakers to Watch" by Independent Magazine and has served as a Film Independent Project Involve Producing Fellow. As a writer, he has adapted the New York Times bestselling novel, MONSTER, into a feature film that had its festival premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival (starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jennifer Hudson, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, Jennifer Ehle, Nas, et al.) and will be released on Netflix in 2021. As a director, he has helmed the critically acclaimed music video, SUREFIRE, by renowned recording artist and entertainer, John Legend. A powerful love story that tracks the epic journey of a young Muslim woman and an undocumented Latino immigrant, SUREFIRE was awarded with a 2017 MTV VMA Award for "Best Fight Against the System." That is the same award that was won by THIS IS AMERICA by Childish Gambino (2018) and YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN by Taylor Swift (2019). SUREFIRE has been featured by Essence, Glamour, The Huffington Post, MTV News, People, Vibe, and Rolling Stone. Cole's upcoming directing efforts will include the post-Katrina narrative feature film, AFTER THE STORM, and a groundbreaking found footage comedy series that will merge various forms of new media to tackle the persistent toxicity of racism and prejudice in America. Cole has one mission in life: To liberate humanity through storytelling. And yes... he really means it.