Barry Michael Cooper

Barry Michael Cooper is a writer, journalist, and filmmaker living in Baltimore, Md.

A native of Harlem, N.Y. Cooper began his writing career as a music critic, and then an investigative reporter for The Village Voice, from 1980-1989. In 1987, he won several journalism awards: Best Magazine Feature, from Ball State University and The National Association of Black Journalists, on a 1986 feature story in Spin Magazine titled "In Cold Blood: The Baltimore Teen Murders". His 1987 cover story in the Village Voice on the drug gang violence in Detroit titled "New Jack City Eats Its Young" was adapted into a screenplay for the smash 1991 Warner Brothers film of the same name, which launched the careers of Wesley Snipes, Chris Rock, Ice-T, Allen Payne, and the director Mario Van Peebles. Cooper also wrote the screenplays for the films "Sugar Hill", and "Above
The Rim". In October 2008, Barry Michael Cooper produced the Larry Davis episode for the Season Three of BET's hit crime documentary, "American Gangster". Thus far, the Larry Davis episode has been the highest-rated Original Series telecast in BET Network history. His new blog, Hooked On The American Dream, can be accessed with this link: http://hookedontheamericandream.blogspot.com/ww