The formative years were split between Chicago, NY and DC - studying acting, music and graphic design: making fake IDs. Unsatisfied with a life of crime, Cooke pursued another childhood passion and in 1996, graduated from Pitzer College with a B.A. in Film, magna cum laude. In 1999, Cooke and two partners working out of his garage raised 7 million dollars from AOL, Time-Warner and Intel to build the first and only patented broadband search engine, Rampt.com for Time-Warner's RoadRunner network. As Executive Creative Director, Cooke earned the "Best of the Web" Design Award from Print Magazine. In 2000, Cooke taught as Professor of Creative Directing at Otis College of Art & Design. And for the next decade would continue to design, art direct, edit and animate as a freelancer. In the summer of 2005, Cooke wrote the screenplay Falcon, the true story sequel to the cult hit "The Falcon and the Snowman". A-list agents at ICM offered to both package the film and represent Cooke as a writer / director. In 2006 Cooke produced and edited his first feature film. Deliver Us from Evil (an expose of the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church) won numerous award s and made over forty critics' 2006 "best of" lists. In 2007 the film received the Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. In 2007 Cooke worked as a writer/director/actor for Fuel TV's variety show, StupidFace. Cooke's sketches guest starred a variety of recognizable cast members from Mr. Show, the Sarah Silverman program, Arrested Development, the Drew Carey show, and more. In 2008 Cooke was the producer for Adrian Grenier's (HBO's Entourage) "Teenage Paparazzo", featuring Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie ODonnell, Eva Longoria and Lewis Black. The film premiered at Sundance in 2010. In 2012 Cooke's directorial debut , "How To Make Money Selling Drugs " was officially selected to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Nephew of actor / writer / musician, Michael Cooke .