Robert Bryan Cogman (born July 25, 1979) is an American television writer and producer. He wrote eleven episodes of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

''. He is also the author of the book ''Inside HBO's Game of Thrones'' which features a preface by ''

A Song of Ice and Fire ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the first volume, ''A Game of Thrones'', in 1991, and published it in 1996. Martin, who originally envisioned the ser ...

'' author

George R. R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948) also known by the initials G.R.R.M. is an American author, television writer, and television producer. He is best known as the author of the unfinished series of Hi ...

Early life

Cogman was born in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, and moved to the Washington, D.C. area when his father became Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Dewey Bartlett. He attended Winston Churchill High School in

Potomac, Maryland Potomac () is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 47,018. It is named a ...

, a suburb of Washington, DC. He was in the class of 1997. He was educated at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

and graduated with a BFA in Acting, class of 2001. Juilliard classmates included

Lee Pace Lee Grinner Pace (born March 25, 1979) is an American actor. He starred as Thranduil the Elvenking in The Hobbit (film series), ''The Hobbit'' trilogy and as Joe MacMillan in the period drama television series ''Halt and Catch Fire (TV series), ...

Anthony Mackie Anthony Dwane Mackie (born September 23, 1978) is an American actor. He gained wide recognition for portraying Sam Wilson / Falcon / Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with the film '' Captain America: The Winter Soldier ...

Tracie Thoms Tracie Thoms is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles in ''Rent'', ''Cold Case'', '' The Devil Wears Prada'', ''Death Proof'', the Fox television series '' Wonderfalls''; as of 2018 she has been a recurring cast member of th ...

, and Steven Boyer. After graduating from Juilliard, "spent the next decade working on his acting career, with little to show for it". Unable to get consistent work as an actor, he sold printer cartridges on the side to pay rent.

Career

Bryan Cogman eventually became a writer for

's ''

''. His wife was working as a nanny for

David Benioff David Friedman (; born September 25, 1970), known professionally as David Benioff (), is an American novelist, screenwriter, and producer. Along with his collaborator D. B. Weiss, he is best known for co-creating ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–201 ...

, at the same time that Cogman was working on a pilot pitch script for a project that never materialized. Benioff agreed to read over Cogman's script, and was impressed enough that he hired him as a personal assistant. Benioff began working with Cogman and got him a job as a writer's assistant on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's '' My Own Worst Enemy''. The show only lasted nine episodes, but the same day it was cancelled, HBO officially picked up ''Game of Thrones'' with David Benioff as co-showrunner. Benioff hired Cogman as his personal assistant, copy-editing scripts in the first season, but then abruptly promoted him to be the official writer for the fourth episode. Cogman remained a staff writer for the rest of the show's run. In 2014, Cogman was hired by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

to write a feature film based on characters and stories from '' Magic: The Gathering'', a popular fantasy trading card game. Cogman gave an interview with

ThinkProgress ''ThinkProgress'' was an American Progressivism in the United States, progressive news website that was active from 2005 to 2019. It was a project of the Center for American Progress#Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for America ...

in 2012. In 2015, it was announced he would pen the live-action remake of '' The Sword in the Stone'' for

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

. In 2016, he made a cameo on ''

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', also known colloquially simply as ''Always Sunny'', is an American sitcom created by Rob McElhenney and co-developed by Glenn Howerton for FX (TV channel), FX. It premiered on August 4, 2005, and stars Charl ...

'' episode "The Gang Goes to Hell: Part Two", as the Insurance Adjuster. In September 2017, Cogman was announced as a creator of a developing fifth ''Game of Thrones'' prequel series. In April 2019, Cogman confirmed that this potential series would not be moving forward. In May 2019,

mentioned on his blog that Cogman would be helping

Amazon Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

with their new ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'' series. More recently, he signed a deal with Entertainment One. In March 2023, Cogman was announced as the series showrunner for the

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

television adaptation of ''

Zorro Zorro ( or , Spanish for "fox") is a fictional character created in 1919 by American Pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashin ...

'' with

Wilmer Valderrama Wilmer Eduardo Valderrama ( ; born January 30, 1980) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Fez in the sitcom '' That '70s Show'' (1998–2006), his current role as Special Agent Nick Torres in '' NCIS'' (2016–present), and Agu ...

set to star.

Filmography

Television

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cogman, Bryan 1979 births Living people Juilliard School alumni American male screenwriters American male television writers American television writers Hugo Award–winning writers