Bio
Sharon E. Cooper is an award-winning internationally produced and published playwright, an award-winning filmmaker and educator, and an expert writing coach based in New York City.
One reviewer wrote that Sharon’s writing “shows people living in and overcoming an absurdly impersonal reality.” Mike Reiss of The Simpson’s fame said that “Sharon’s writing contains great humor, rich characters, and total originality.”
Sharon’s plays are published in The Best 10-Minute Plays 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2019; Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays; Reading Literature and Writing Argument; The Bedford Introduction to Literature, and several other college textbooks. Her plays have had productions in Singapore, The Netherlands, Germany, England, Hungary, India, Australia, and across the United States.
FILMS, TV, & PILOT SCRIPTS
Sharon’s short comedic film “The Seven Men of Hanukkah” (screenwriter/producer) screened around the country, was a winner of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, one of the “Best of the Fest” at the Glass Ceiling Breaker 3 Festival, and was distributed in North America and South Asia on DIRECTV. Her short comedic film “Believin’” (screenwriter/producer)— based on her published play with the same title—screened around the country and was the winner of the Chain Film Festival’s Filmmaker’s Favorite Awards. Both films are available here.
Sharon wrote and produced the comedic short “The Bird Beauty Contest.” It was shot on an iPhone and screened at The Lighthouse International Film Festival and is available on the Bird Broadcast Network.
Sharon’s lesbian romantic comedy feature screenplay was in the top 20% in the Austin Film Festival, a Quarter Finalist in the PAGE Awards, a Semi-Finalist in the Rhode Island International Film Festival, and a reviewer from the Black List wrote that the screenplay imbues “rich authenticity, specificity, vividness, and joy.”
Sharon’s pilot script JESSICA LOVES JUDAISM had a reading with Greater Film Festival. Her pilot script, THE ABRAHAM GIRLS, co-written with Hend Ayoub, was a finalist in the Rhode Island International Film Festival. Sharon was one of the writers for Brooklyn Private Investigators (BKPI), a web series from Creator/Director Hye Yun Park.
THEATRE HIGHLIGHTS
CAUGHT, Sharon’s Master’s Thesis play at NYU, had a reading at the Drama Book Shop, a staged reading at the Chain Theatre Company, was recognized in the top 20% by the prestigious Austin Film Festival, and had a Zoom reading produced by the Mirrorbox Theatre Company, featuring William Jackson Harper (The Good Place).
Here’s what the artistic director of the Mirrorbox Theatre had to say about Caught: “The play is centered in very believable relationships that present an intersection not often seen on stage, friendships between white Jewish characters and Black Christian characters. With deep histories and so much love for each other, they navigate murky conflicts with a pace that makes the real-time storytelling fly by.” Caught is currently being offered as a world premiere.
STALLED, a short play about two women stalling in a fancy bathroom, was produced at the Vineyard Theatre as part of the Samuel French Festival and is published in The Best Ten-Minute Plays, 2019. PAINTING SEVENTEEN, about a woman painting her self-portrait at the age of seventeen, won Best Short Play in the “Planet Connections Festival,” was a finalist in the “Short and Sweet” festival in Sydney, Australia, and is published in The Best 10-Minute Plays, 2016. A VISIT TO THE BRONX, a one-act play about a Jewish woman who goes to the address where her grandmother was born and is transported in time to meet her, was commissioned by The Keller Theater in Giessen, Germany. Her short play SIMPLY TWISTED had a world premiere in Theatre Revolution’s Glass Ceiling Breaker 3 Festival.
Sharon’s plays are taught on college campuses, produced by colleges, professionals, community theatres, and students and work well together for an evening of theatre. Some of Sharon’s plays are available here.
TEACHING, EDUCATION, AND MORE
Sharon is the co-founder of a holistic tutoring and educational services company: Maximum Potential Education. Her passion for writing and compassionate approach allows people to become confident writers. In New York City, she has tutored students from Browning, Sacred Heart, Dalton, the U.N. school, Horace Mann, Riverdale (and many others) on their analytical and creative writing. Sharon supports students from across the country to craft their best college entrance essays. Along the way, they all become better writers.
Sharon is honored and thrilled to be the Artistic Consultant/Editor of Dr. Sabrina N’Diaye’s first book: Big Mama Speaks: Love Lessons from a Harlem River Swan.
Sharon is a mentor, artistic consultant and writing coach for the Social Cinema Foundation.
She taught English, Theatre and Creative Writing in private and Independent Schools, has been a guest lecturer at NYU, the New School, the Neighborhood Playhouse, and the Governor’s School of the Arts. She was the Playwright-in-Residence for “New Voices for the Theatre” in Richmond, VA, where she won a fellowship and had her first full-length play produced as a teenager.
Sharon was one of twenty playwrights chosen for the inaugural Kennedy Center’s Playwriting Intensive Program. She is a graduate of Longwood University (BA) and NYU (MA). Her Master’s Degree “Writing as a Means to Create Social Change” is from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Sharon is a member of the Stillwater Writer’s Group, Honor Roll, and the Dramatists Guild.
Sharon also teaches yoga and other fitness classes and is a DEI consultant. When she’s not writing or mentoring a young person, she may be trying to perfect the perfect smoothie in her Vitamix.
