Writer and director Morgan Cooper on turning a self-funded Bel-Air short into a series, building creative audacity before opportunity arrives, and staying resourceful across drafts, collaboration, and a children’s picture book.
You'll learn:
- Why “imperfect action” can be a practical antidote to creative paralysis, especially early in your craft.
- How he found a compelling dramatic lens by stripping away sitcom expectations and focusing on character archetypes and real-world stakes.
- What it can look like to invest commercial income back into self-initiated work to build a body of proof.
- Why “waiting for permission” often hides fear, and how starting anyway can change what’s possible.
- Why the “angle” of your idea matters, and how recalibrating it can be the difference between a draft that stalls and a draft that lands.
- How identifying the “big question” of a story can give your scenes direction and your revisions momentum.
- Simple ways to keep the creative channel open using a notes app, project scrap bins, and a journaling method that functions like index cards.
- How collaboration becomes part of the craft when you treat writing as iterative perspective-building, not a solitary performance.
- What writing a picture book can teach about economy, structure, and building an arc inside tight page limits.
- How designing a kid-led mission around resourcefulness can create momentum and emotional payoff in short form.
Resources & Links:
About Morgan Cooper:
Morgan Stevenson Cooper is a Los Angeles-based writer and director and the creative force behind Bel-Air, the dramatic reimagining of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that grew out of his self-released short film in March 2019. After the film drew widespread attention, Will Smith and Westbrook Studios came on board as collaborators, and the series premiered in February 2022, with Cooper serving as creator, director, co-writer, and executive producer. He is a two-time Tribeca X winner for U Shoot Videos? and Pay Day, and is developing BLKCOFFEE as writer, director, and executive producer.
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