The Gift That Jumpstarted Ryan Coogler’s Career

ryan coogler smiling while holding a microphone
Via Wikimedia Commons
Briona Lamback
May 9, 2025

Over the last decade, Ryan Coogler has become one of Hollywood's most celebrated writer-directors. At the beginning of his filmmaking journey, his partner in love and creativity, Zinzi, gifted him something that made his success possible.

Coogler was struggling to write screenplays in Microsoft Word when he and his girlfriend Zinzi were broke college students. He needed something that no budding filmmaker could live without. And she found a way to make sure he got it.

It was a $300 screenwriting software called Final Draft. When asked about his start, Coogler always mentions Zinzi's early support, calling the software the "kindest thing" anyone had ever given him. This story isn't about software, though.

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