Making Media That Matters

When Phil Cooke ’76 first came to ORU, he was a piano major and had no idea it was possible to make a career out of working in the film industry. Forty years later, Cooke is considered a media guru, having produced media programming in nearly 50 countries around the world.

The internationally known writer and speaker was first introduced to the world of film in high school. He and his friends would often steal his dad’s camera and make movies.

“We’d make army movies, mafia movies and space movies,” Cooke recalled. “I brought them to ORU thinking maybe someone would want to make movies with me.”

While unpacking his belongings, a student on his floor told Cooke that he could help him learn to edit the movies. A professor saw one of Cooke’s films and asked to show it to his class.

“I sat in the back of the class, and when it was over, they talked about it. Some liked it; some didn’t. But this unexpected moment happened to me that I’ve never had quite as clear before or since. This idea came to me that if I could do something with a camera that makes people talk about it like this, that is what I’m supposed to do with my life. I changed my major that day and I’ve never looked back.”

From that day forward, Cooke said he could not be found at ORU without a camera. After graduation he moved to LA and worked with several fellow ORU alumni. About a year later, Cooke was contacted by someone at Oral Roberts’ TV program to come work as an assistant director.

“I came back and a few years later, I was directing his TV show at the peak of his ministry,” Cooke said. “Oral was a great mentor. I traveled all over the world with him and I learned so much.”

In 1991, Cooke moved back to the west coast and founded Cooke Pictures in Burbank, California, where he has worked on everything from Super Bowl commercials to documentaries for PBS.

Cooke has appeared on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN and Fox News and had his work profiled in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Jolt!: Get the Jump on a World That’s Constantly Changing,” “One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born to Do,” which was named one of the top five business books for 2012 by the Washington Post, and “Unique: Telling Your Story in the Age of Brands and Social Media.”

The concept of “going into every person’s world” is one Cooke says is so important for ORU students and alumni. It is his hope that through his career, he can influence how Christians engage the world and how the world receives that message.

“I want my legacy to be that I helped change the perception of Christianity in the culture. We live in a perception-driven culture. There are so many choices and distractions, and that initial perception means more than ever before.

“If we can change that initial thought that people have about who Jesus is, what Christianity is, or what the church is about, it could have a huge impact on opening that door and them giving it a second thought.”

To learn more about Cooke, visit philcooke.com.