Director
Alycia Cooper
Alycia Cooper is what’s known in Hollywood at a multi-hyphenate. She’s an
actor/ comic/ writer/ producer/ director. She loves each skill set equally- but for
different reasons. Being an actor has allowed her to be an excellent director,
who knows how to direct other actors. A comedian is basically a writer, director,
and producer of their own material. And when you combine all five, you’ve got
Alycia.
Alycia began acting at the age of 5 at Howard University’s Children’s Theater
while her mom completed her undergraduate degree. She then developed a love
of stand-up comedy, after her older cousin, Karen’s mother put her out of the
house for being “smart mouthed.” Karen was nine years older. And became
Alycia’s de-facto older sister. Alycia watched all of the comics that Karen
loved: Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Rita Rudner,
Judy Tenuta, and Yakov Smirnoff, all while in middle school.
Alycia went on the play Evilene in “The Wiz” while an undergraduate at The University of Maryland College Park. She then started interning at Black Entertainment Television in Washington, DC. Alycia loved producing. Shortly after, she fell in love with the hit television show, “Living Single”, and decided to move to Hollywood with no connections and $1200 to her name. This is where the fun began.
Alycia was in Hollywood for one month, before she landed a job on Magic Johnson’s Late Night Talk Show, “The Magic Hour,” (and that’s how long it lasted). From there, she started to make connections, and continued to work all over town. Eventually landing a gig as a WGA Trainee on the hit UPN sitcom, “The Parkers.” From there, she started performing stand-up comedy at night, and producing a series of hit reality television shows by day. She was eventually hired as a Segment Director on “The Dr. Phil Show,” which afforded her a membership into the esteemed Director’s Guild of America, or “DGA.” Although Alycia became a member of the DGA, she still had not directed a narrative. Her current dream is to write and direct feature films that she can also co-star in. In order for her to get a break, she knew she’d have to write and direct her own project, which led to her first short film called, “Trade.” Trade is a half hour psychological thriller that takes the viewer on a ride. Audience members are riveted to their seats, which it’s why it has won several awards. Alycia is currently in pre-production of directing “Trade” the feature film, which she also wrote.
Her second short, a twelve- minute supernatural thriller called, “Just Us” is winning awards in film festivals, and streaming on several platforms. It’s a supernatural thriller that revolves around a premise that has never been seen in 2 cinema before. Her third film, entitled “Fat Stripper,” is a romantic comedy in which she is also stars. It too, is winning awards in festivals, and is airing on streaming platforms.
Alycia recently broke ground in the television episodic space. She directed episode five, of a six episode independent television series called, “Intersection,” about gentrification in Atlanta.
Alycia’s accolades include being featured in Essence Magazine in 2004 as “One to Watch.” She has released six stand-up comedy albums to date. She has her very own Pandora Station and can be heard on Kevin Hart’s satellite station as well as on Sirius Satellite’s Laugh USA Channel 98. She had toured over 20 countries overseas to perform for our men and women in uniform. Alycia is only just beginning to scratch the surface of where she’s going. You can currently see “Trade” on the UrbanFlix TV network. It’s quite clear that Alycia and her multihyphenated creations are here to stay.
