In 2007, H. M. Coakley made his feature directorial debut with Holla, an urban horror-comedy, which he also co-produced and co-wrote. Lionsgate Films acquired Holla shortly after completion, making it the first horror film independently produced and directed by African-Americans to be acquired and distributed by a major studio. Coakley's work as a producer includes co-creating and executive producing Mecca, an hour long drama series for HBO Original Programming, as well as producing the acclaimed independent films Ten Benny and Restaurant both starring Academy Award winner Adrien Brody (King Kong, The Pianist). Restaurant also starred Grammy Award winner, Lauryn Hill, Jesse Martin (Law and Order), and Simon Baker (The Mentalist). Ten Benny premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and both pictures opened to rave reviews. Coakley has also produced and directed dozens of music videos and commercials, working with recording artists including Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, Kirk Franklin, and Dr Dre, as well as directors Hype Williams and Paul Hunter. A native of the United States Virgin Islands, H. M. Coakley is a magna cum-laude graduate from Howard University with a B.S. degree in Physics and an honors graduate from Columbia University with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Filmmaking.

HM has both BS and MS degrees in Physics. He was working on his PH.D in physics at UCLA, when he decided to drop out and attend Columbia University film school.