Biography

Ryan Kyle Coogler is an American film-maker and producer from Oakland, California. Highly critically acclaimed, he has directed the films Fruitvale Station (2013), Creed (2015), Black Panther (2018), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) and Sinners (2025), all of which he also wrote, and all of which feature Michael B. Jordan. His first film was an independent success, and the rest have been major blockbusters, with Black Panther becoming one of the most widely seen superhero movies ever, and Sinners one of the highest-grossing horror films ever made. He has also produced the Creed sequels, as well as Judas and the Black Messiah and Space Jam: A New Legacy. He has been married to Zinzi Evans, with whom he has two children, since 2016.
- IMDb mini biography by: Christian Frates

Always casts leading man Michael B. Jordan

Trademark use of long takes

[re making Fruitvale Station (2013)] We shot here [BART station] for three nights after the station was closed, Everybody was there with us: BART employees, safety monitors, train drivers, all the cast members and crew. Some of us would pray; others would just keep to themselves. The energy of it hit everybody. It was the hardest thing I've done in my life, making this movie. Having to see [real-life hero] Oscar die so many times. And having to see the people react to it. That never gets easy, man. Never.

[re Oscar Grant's murder] It really caused an identity crisis here in the Bay Area because we think of ourselves as the most progressive place, the most diverse place, the most accepting place in the country. I grew up with white friends, Asian friends - Vietnamese, Chinese, Pacific Islanders. I had Hispanic friends, not just Mexican friends, but Guatemalan friends, Honduran friends, and we knew the difference, you know? So when we saw that happen to Oscar, and we saw it on video, it was like the wind getting knocked out of us. I was questioning who we were as a community.

[on 'Black Panther'] Obviously, the superhero is who puts you in the seat. That's who you want to come out on top. But I'll be damned if the villains aren't cool too. They have to be able to stand up to the hero and have you saying, "Man, I don't know if the hero's going to make it out of this."

[on "Black Panther"] We never wanted to say one character is right and the other wrong. You get into dangerous territory if you expect the art you make to change people's minds. But if someone can catch a film and then go home and talk about it, that's doing a lot.