Cooper Harris is an American entrepreneur and actress. She is currently the CEO & founder of Klickly, a payments platform, based in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Harris had a career as an actress on such TV shows like ''

Young and the Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in the fictional Genoa City (named after the real-life Genoa City, Wisco ...

'' and ''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other so ...

'', among others. Cooper was also the Director of Tech for Collective Summit and produced the first-ever Innovation Summit and Social-Impact

Hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of '' hacking'' and ''marathon'') is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 h ...

during

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada * Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated pl ...

. Her team won the Los Angeles AT&T Hackathon.

Career

As an actress

Upon her move to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Harris was cast in the soap opera, ''

''. After her role on the TV Harris stepped in to play a leading role in an off-Broadway play at the

Cherry Lane Theater The Cherry Lane Theatre is the oldest continuously running off-Broadway theater in New York City. The theater is located at 38 Commerce Street between Barrow and Bedford Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, ...

. Shortly after the show closed, Harris moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and into a role in a Paramount film called '' Dough Boys'', which was her entrée into the Hollywood entertainment scene.

As a Tech Entrepreneur

During her stint on ''

'', Cooper became interested in entrepreneurship and started attending hackathons. Having grown up with a brother who was a computer engineer and a father who was a

serial entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

, Harris stated that she was interested in a field that would allow both creativity and the ability to control her own destiny. Harris won the AT&T Hackathon in

, and shortly thereafter build the first Innovation and Tech Summit during the

Sundance film festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

, called Collective. As part of this initiative, she co-founded Hackdance, a social impact hackathon that brought celebrities together to create apps or platforms that would change the world for the better. Cooper then went on to judge and produce the South by Southwest Hackathon, a hackathon for PBS, and the BritWeek children’s hackathon. In her first startup, a digital production company, she created and sold her own shows & content to companies such as Post It Notes, Kimberly Clark, DailyMotion & studio production giant, Endemol. Cooper is a favorite speaker at international summits including the

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

, ShopTalk,

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

, Los Angeles TechWeek, London Tech Conference, and more, speaking on Marketing Technology / Retail Tech /

Financial Technology Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...

, fostering women in

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...

, and disrupting the status quo using technology and innovation.

Philanthropy and Charity

Previously, as the Executive Director of the Oasis Foundation, Cooper oversaw initiatives to foster innovation & entrepreneurship. She is also a mentor at Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), which teaches kids entrepreneurship in schools. Cooper speaks on being a Woman in Tech and the intersection of Entertainment & Tech at venues such as the CES Conference, USC, SXSW, Silicon Beach Fest, iMedia Summit, General Assembly, Wonder Woman Tech Summit, Sundance, and more, and produced a media-based Hackathon for PBS. Cooper is on the Board of the non-profit organization Hidden Voices.

Awards and honours

* 2017 Cannes Lions "Top Thought Leader" * L'Oreal's "Digital Woman of the Year" * UKTI Innovation Award, alongside Will.I.Am * Cooper is a member of YEC (Young Entrepreneurs Council) and sits on the board of Hidden Voices, a non-profit organization tell the stories of homeless, imprisoned or immigrant people underrepresented by mainstream media.

References

External links

*
Klickly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Cooper 21st-century American businesspeople American computer businesspeople American women company founders American company founders Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) University of North Carolina School of the Arts alumni 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American actresses American soap opera actresses American television actresses