My name is David S. Cohen. Today, I'm a freelance writer, editor and storyteller. My most recent full-time role was as Creative Director at Variety Content Studio, the branded content arm of the "entertainment bible," Variety. Previously I was a Features Editor and an award-winning reporter and video producer. I've written six books; interviewed movie stars, politicians, directors, ex-spies, struggling artists and scientists; spoken at conferences around the world and been a frequent guest on radio & TV, holding forth on everything from the Oscars to the intersection of politics and media. And I love all of it. Sometimes I have to tell the story of how I got here to understand it myself.Once my plan was to be a Broadway director. What I loved about directing — and still love about leading creative teams — is bringing artists together and inspiring them to do beautiful work. In my early career, I did almost any job you could name in a theater, from acting to house manager. I was a casting assistant for Broadway shows and learned the ropes in a theatrical literary agency. Inspired to try screenwriting, I started writing science fiction with an old friend. We moved to Hollywood and sold a script to “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”I was reading scripts for a living when I got an assignment to cover "Twister" for the South China Morning Post. It turned out to be a great fit. Soon I was freelancing for print outlets around the world. I joined the Variety newsroom in 2002 and moved up over some 20 years. I won awards for my print reporting, for editorial video and for branded content. My articles for Script Magazine were the fodder for my first book: “Screen Plays.” Since then, I’ve written five more books on films and filmmaking, all rated higher than four stars on Amazon. At Variety Content Studio, I worked on all kinds of campaigns: print, digital, video, even influencer marketing. I collaborated with the small-but-mighty VCS team, and with Variety sales and marketing, on ideation and production. I selected and managed superb teams of writers, designers, illustrators and photographers. I worked on both branded and editorial video, sometimes editing video myself. I also wrote a deep-dive white paper on branded entertainment for Variety Intelligence Platform.In 2022 I relocated from Los Angeles to Cleveland for family reasons and left my role at VCS. Happily, thanks to mobile tech and fast Internet, I work seamlessly with clients and sources everywhere. These days I'm never sure what the day will bring. But here I am, and it's pretty great.