Etan Cohen

Etan Cohen (Hebrew: איתן כהן‎; born March 14, 1974) is an Israeli-American screenwriter and film director, best known for writing the scripts to Tropic Thunder, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Men in Black 3, and Rumble.

Etan Cohen
Born	March 14, 1974 Israel
Alma mater	Harvard College
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1995–present

Early life and education

Born in Israel to a Jewish family,[1][2] Cohen grew up in Efrat, Israel, and later on in Sharon, Massachusetts, U.S. He graduated from the Maimonides School and Harvard College, where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon.

Career

His first produced scripts, in 1995 and 1997, were for Beavis and Butthead, where he was credited as Ethan Cohen.[3] He has since written for other Mike Judge-directed projects, including King of the Hill from 2001 to 2005, and for the feature film Idiocracy in 2006. In the late 1990s he worked on two other television series – the animated Recess and the short lived It's Like, You Know.... After scripting Idiocracy, he worked on the animated series, American Dad! and wrote the episode, "Failure Is Not a Factory-Installed Option". The American Dad! minor character of the same name is named for him.

In 2008, Cohen co-wrote, along with Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux, the action-comedy film Tropic Thunder. He also wrote Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. The film earned him, along with an Annie Award nomination for Best Screenplay.

Cohen penned the script for 2012's Men in Black 3. In 2015, he made his directorial debut with Get Hard, which he also co-wrote.

Cohen wrote and directed the 2018 film Holmes & Watson. The film earned him a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director.[4]

Personal life

Cohen is an observant Jew.[5] He keeps kosher and does not work on the Jewish Sabbath and he and his wife send their children to a Jewish day school.[5]

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Notes
2006	Idiocracy	No	Yes	Co-wrote with Mike Judge
2008	Tropic Thunder	No	Yes	Co-wrote with Justin Theroux and Ben Stiller
2008	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa	No	Yes	Co-wrote with Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath Nominated – Annie Award for Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production[6]
2012	Men in Black 3	No	Yes
2015	Get Hard	Yes	Yes	Directorial debut Co-wrote with Jay Martel and Ian Roberts
2018	Holmes & Watson	Yes	Yes	Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director[7]
2021	Rumble	No	Yes	Co-wrote with Matt Lieberman and Richard Pursel
2022	The Bad Guys	No	Yes	Co-wrote with Hilary Winston Also executive producer with Aaron Blabey, Jeff Berg, and Patrick Hughes

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Notes
1995–1997	Beavis and Butt-head	No	Yes
1999	It's Like, You Know	No	Yes
1999	Recess	No	Yes
1999	Timon & Pumbaa	No	Yes
2001–2005	King of the Hill	No	Yes	Annie Award for Best Writing in an Animated Television Production[8]
2006	American Dad!	No	Yes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
2007	US Comedy Arts Festival	Comedy Festival Award for Best Short Film	My Wife Is Retarded	Won	[9]
2019	39th Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Director	Holmes & Watson	Won	[10]

References

1. Smith, Lynn (August 15, 2008). "The joke is on you". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
2. Chris Lee (May 29, 2012). "The Movie Redemption of 'Men in Black 3' Scribe Etan Cohen". The Daily Beast. IAC. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
3. IMDb credits page
4. Howard, Annie (February 22, 2019). "Worst Director - Razzie Awards: 'Holmes & Watson' Named Worst Picture of the Year". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
5. Zeitchik, Steven (March 13, 2015). "Etan Cohen, director of 'Get Hard,' is used to confounding expectations". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
6. "Annie Awards (2009)". IMDb.
7. "Razzie Awards (2019)". IMDb.
8. "Annie Awards (2005)". IMDb.
9. "US Comedy Arts Festival (2007)". IMDb.
10. https://www.goldderby.com/article/2019/2019-razzie-winners-list-video-announcement-news/

External links

• Etan Cohen at IMDb