Born in the Bronx and raised outside of Washington, DC, Colen (Cole) Wiley is a multiple award-winning writer and filmmaker. Coming of age in the midst of the modern American metropolis of the nation’s capital, cosmopolitan storytelling became an integral part of his life at an early age. Anchored by an upbringing that was heavily influenced by the black intellectual movements of the 20th century, he has had a professional career that has included everything from flipping burgers, to working at NASA, to waiting tables, to teaching youth as a gang avoidance counselor, to mopping floors, to graduating from Harvard Law School. With these varied life experiences, he has consequently developed a breadth of perspective and an expansive vision to inspire his work. As a filmmaker, he has directed/produced award-winning short films that have screened at dozens of international film festivals across the globe. A product of the NYU Graduate Film Program, his debut feature film screenplay, After the Storm, won the 2011 Spike Lee Production Fund Award with Spike Lee serving as an Executive Producer on the film. The project also won the 2011 Next 15 Minutes Screenplay Competition (sponsored by Final Draft), and the 2011 Urbanworld Film Festival Screenplay Competition (sponsored by BET and HBO). Wiley is also adapting the New York Times bestselling novel, Monster, for Tonik Productions. Both projects will go into production in 2014.