Cooper Michael Raiff (born c. 1997)[1][2] is an American filmmaker and actor. He has received praise for his films Shithouse (2020) and Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022).[3] In August 2022, Raiff launched his production company Small Ideas.
A native of Dallas, Raiff attended the Greenhill School.[1] He participated in school theatre productions and studied at the Dallas Young Actors Studio for 4 years.[4] During his senior year, he wrote and performed in his first play.[5] Raiff enrolled at Occidental College in Los Angeles and withdrew in 2019 to focus on film.[6]
During spring break in 2018, Raiff stayed on campus to make Madeline & Cooper, a 50-minute short film that he uploaded to YouTube.[7] He then tweeted a link of the video to filmmaker Jay Duplass, who met with Raiff and encouraged him to adapt the project to feature-length; it became Raiff's debut feature Shithouse, in which he starred, directed, wrote, produced, and co-edited.[8] The film premiered at the 2020 SXSW where it was named Best Narrative Feature.[9] Distributed by IFC Films,[10] it opened in October 2020 to positive reviews.[11][12]
Raiff's second film, Cha Cha Real Smooth, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for the Dramatic Competition, and is available on Apple TV+.[13] The film was reportedly purchased by the company for $15 million.[14]
In July 2022, it was announced that Raiff wrote and would direct The Trashers, a drama about "a Connecticut trash magnate and associate of the Genovese crime family. In 2004, Galante bought the city’s minor-league hockey team and assigned his teenage son A.J. to run it"; it would star David Harbour and Cooper Hoffman.[15] However, in January 2025, Raiff revealed that the film had been cancelled because it failed to find financing.[16] He appeared on the 2022 Variety list of directors to watch.[17]
On August 2, 2022, it was announced that Raiff has partnered with Clementine Quittner of Black Bear Productions to launch his own production company called Small Ideas. Raiff commented on the company, and the film industry at large, saying, "There's a very good, lucrative market for making small things and flipping them, and if you're okay with them being maybe like a streamer-theatrical duo, I think everyone should be really feeling great and confident about getting their stuff made that they want to make."[18]
Raiff was given the Maverick Award at the 2022 Newport Beach Film Festival[19] and appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Hollywood & Entertainment.[20]
For his first television project, Raiff is attached to direct and co-write an television adaptation of Naoise Dolan's novel Exciting Times starring Phoebe Dynevor for Amazon Prime.[21]
In 2023, he filmed a television series with Mark Ruffalo and Lili Reinhart entitled Hal & Harper.[22]
Raiff has cited Emma Seligman, Sofia Coppola, Greta Gerwig, Ryan Coogler, and the Duplass brothers as influences.[23][24]
| Year | English title | Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Madeline & Cooper | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Cooper | Short film |
| 2020 | Shithouse | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Alex Malmquist | Also editor |
| 2022 | Cha Cha Real Smooth | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Andrew | |
| TBA | See You When I See You | No | No | No | Yes | TBA | Filming |
| Year | English title | Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Hal & Harper | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Hal | Post-production[25] |
| Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Zurich Film Festival | Best International Feature Film | Shithouse | Nominated | |
| SXSW Film Festival | Narrative Feature | Won | |||
| 2022 | Sundance Film Festival | Grand Jury Prize | Cha Cha Real Smooth | Nominated | |
| Palm Springs International Film Festival | Directors to Watch | Won |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
