Producer Biographies
DREA COOPER
Drea Cooper is a filmmaker and commercial director based in San Francisco. For the
past eight years, he has worked all around the world including India, Kosovo, Colombia,
Taiwan, and the US directing and shooting feature documentaries, commercials and
television shows. He has worked with a variety of clients and networks including Apple,
Google, Nokia, adidas, Ray-Ban, MTV and A&E. In 2007, Drea spent the year making
the award-winning documentary film, Reborn, New Orleans Schools, which charts the
course of the educational reform movement in post-Katrina New Orleans.
In 2008, Drea was chosen to direct the Olympic commercial campaign for 24 Hour
Fitness and had the chance to work with gold medalist Kerri Walsh and Jeremy
Wariner. In 2009, Drea completed production on a twelve-part series of short
documentary films for Nokia and the Pearson Foundation about educational reform,
reinvention, and 21st century ingenuity. Drea’s new project, California is a Place, is an
ongoing series of short films about the Golden State. The films have drawn the attention
of over 2 million viewers online, and been reviewed by the PBS News Hour, The Atlantic,
The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard School of Journalism.
STEPHEN BROWN
Stephen Brown is President of Mobile Digital Arts (MDA). MDA was formed to improve
young people's access to digital arts programs and computers; to support teachers and
community leaders eager to integrate digital arts within their classrooms; and to develop
and share youth-based programs that make thoughtful, innovative use of the latest
digital technologies.
In the last five years, Mobile Digital Arts has turned to film and video production as a way
to showcase and share innovative educational practices, digital media programs, and
21st century approaches to learning. Brown produced Reborn, New Orleans Schools, a
feature documentary about the school reform movement after Katrina; A 21st Century
Education, a series of twelve short films about innovation in education; and a series of
short films profiling the work of leading researchers, educators and thinkers on the
impact that new media is having on young learners.
Formerly, Brown was a business development manager, product planner and MSN
producer at Microsoft Corporation. He went on to publish adult educational programs at
Learning Network, as well as a producer at WOMAD USA, a world music festival
founded by Peter Gabriel.