Dick Cooper

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Dick Cooper
Prescott Hotel ( Ottawa, Ontario )
Prescott Hotel ( Ottawa, Ontario )
Background information
Birth name Richard Cooper
Also known as Coop
Genre(s) Country Rock
Occupation(s) Songwriter, Guitarist, Author, Producer
Instrument(s) Guitar
Associated acts The Cooper Brothers

Dick Cooper is a musician and writer based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

A founding member of the popular 70s Canadian southern-rock band The Cooper Brothers, he toured extensively throughout North America and helped the band achieve several hits under the Capricorn Records label, including a number of songs which charted on The Billboard Hot 100[1].

When the band went their separate ways in 1983, Dick began working as a children’s television writer (working under the name Richard Cooper) and over the next few years scripted several shows for Nickelodeon including You Can’t Do That On Television[2] and Turkey T.V.

While working at local Ottawa television studio CJOH in 1986, Cooper also created and developed his first original series entitled Highschool Confidential. Cooper would write and produce 21 episodes of the teen variety series, and the show was later syndicated in the U.S. and Canada, winning the International Iris Award at NATPE in 1987.

In 1988, Cooper followed up Highschool Confidential by producing and directing 13 episodes of the television series Denim Blues[3], a half-hour teen drama which was subsequently syndicated in both Canada and Japan. The show would also mark the acting debut of Golden Globe Winner Sandra Oh as well as Tyley Ross, of the popular singing ensemble the East Village Opera Company. The series was also presented with the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Gold Ribbon Award in 1989.

In 1990, Cooper left C.J.O.H. to pursue a freelance career as a writer, director and producer. During this time, he continued to work as a story editor, as well as teaching screenwriting at the Ottawa based Algonquin College and the Summer Institute of Film and Television. Cooper also wrote and scored the soundtracks for several industrial films, television shows and documentaries.

In 1997, Cooper was hired on as the Creative Director of Ottawa based video game developer Artech Studios. Over the next ten years, Cooper would work on over 50 best-selling video game titles including: Q*Bert, Star Wars Monopoly, Jeopardy[4], Wheel Of Fortune, Family Feud,Stanley, Trivial Pursuit Unhinged and Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit; working with the likes of Andy Serkis, Whoopi Goldberg, Alex Trebek, Vanna White, John O’Hurley and John Cleese[5].

In 2006, Cooper once again become involved with the Cooper Brothers when the band reformed after twenty years of separation to release a “Best Of” CD under the EMI Pacemaker label.

More recently Cooper has sold the rights to a screenplay to Los Angeles based production company Kingsborough Pictures; a political thriller entitled Cara Al Sol (My Face to the Sun), which takes place in Havana in 1961 in the days leading up to the Bay of Pigs invasion[6]. The film is slated to begin production in Mexico and Cuba in 2008.

Cooper’s first novel entitled Jukebox, was also released in September 2007 by Rain Publishing[7].

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