Kate Cohen

Kate Cohen launched Straight Up Films with partner Marisa Polvino in 2008, where her exceptional sales skills, strategic approach, and aptitude for uniting creative talents laid the foundation for a thriving business. Cohen grew up in West Hollywood, where she developed a passion for great stories. While working in freelance fashion PR, Kate began to realize her prodigious ability to build relationships amongst the heavy hitters of the fashion world, a skill she would soon translate to the entertainment business. In 2010, Cohen prepared to produce Away From Here, a film starring Nick Stahl, which Kate also co-wrote. While approaching investors for the film, Kate uncovered she had a talent for raising funds for entertainment projects. She quickly became the go-to person for raising significant financing for her relationships in the business. Her first investor was litigation powerhouse, David Boies, who was Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2010. While at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, she met her current partner, Marisa Polvino, and they decided to partner in forming a development and production company, Straight Up Films. Kate sought out and secured the early strategic investors who helped launch Straight Up Films, which has now produced or invested in a number of films, including Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman and Rebecca Hall; Jane Got a Gun, directed by Gavin O'Connor and starring Natalie Portman; and SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock, produced with Vice Films. On their current slate are a number of projects in various stages, including among others, Merrick, produced with Mike Medavoy and David Dobkin; Alex, to be in pre-production in September 2018 and to be directed by Louis Leterrier; and Dissonance, a modern day Sliding Doors to be directed by Catherine Hardwicke; also in the Fall she will go into production on the feature film Heart of a Champion, to be directed by Nick Sarkisov, written by David McKenna, and starring Stephen Dorff. On the television side, she is developing a limited series on the life of Hedy Lamarr with Anonymous Content, starring Diane Kruger. Cohen is also producing a series of films in partnership with Google, directed by A-level actors; this series promotes girls in the Computer Sciences and will be released later this year. Kate is a member of the Producers Guild of America and lives in West Hollywood.