Etan Cohen

American film director and screenwriter

Not to be confused with Ethan Coen.

Etan Cohen

Born|  (1974-03-14) March 14, 1974 (age 49)

Israel

Nationality| American
Alma mater| Harvard College
Occupation(s)| Film director, screenwriter
Years active| 1995–present

Etan Cohen (Hebrew: איתן כהן; born March 14, 1974) is an Israeli-American screenwriter and film director who has written scripts for Hollywood movies, including Idiocracy, Tropic Thunder, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Men in Black 3, and The Bad Guys.

## Early life and education[edit]

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

## Career[edit]

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His first produced scripts, in 1995 and 1997, were for Beavis and Butthead, where he was credited as Ethan Cohen.[citation needed] 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.... In 2007, he wrote the short film ‘My Wife is Retarded,’.[3] 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, which earned an Annie Award nomination for best Writing in a Feature Production.

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[edit]

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[edit]

### Films[edit]

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]
2022  | The Bad Guys | No  | Yes  | Additional screenplay material by Yoni Brenner and Hilary Winston
Also executive producer with Aaron Blabey and Patrick Hughes
2022  | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | No  | Yes  | Additional screenplay material
TBA  | Brothers | No  | Yes  | Co-wrote with Macon Blair

### Television[edit]

Year  | Title  | Notes

|
|

1995–1997  | Beavis and Butt-head |
1999  | It's Like, You Know |
Recess |
Timon & Pumbaa |
2001–2005  | King of the Hill | Annie Award for Best Writing in an Animated Television Production[8]
2006  | American Dad! |

## Awards and nominations[edit]

Year  | Award  | Category  | Nominated work  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

2005  | Annie Award | Writing in an Animated Television Production  | King of the Hill | Won  | [9]
2007  | US Comedy Arts Festival | Comedy Festival Award for Best Short Film | My Wife Is Retarded | Won  | [10]
2009  | Annie Award  | Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production  | Madagascar 2 | Nominated  | [9]
2019  | 39th Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Director | Holmes & Watson | Won  | [11]

## References[edit]

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. ^ "My Wife is Retarded". IMDb.
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. ^ a b 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 - 36th Annie Awards". Annie Awards. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
7. ^ Montgomery, Daniel (February 23, 2019). "2019 Razzie winners announced: Full list of Razzie Award winners in all 10 categories [WATCH]". GoldDerby. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
8. ^ "Annie Awards - 32nd Annie Awards". Retrieved April 30, 2023.
9. ^ a b "Etan Cohen - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
10. ^ Sciretta, Peter (February 13, 2007). "The 2007 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival Film Program Line-Up". /Film. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
11. ^ "2019 Razzie winners announced: Full list of Razzie Award winners in all 10 categories [WATCH]". February 23, 2019.

## External links[edit]

* Etan Cohen at IMDb
* https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/etan_cohen

Awards for Etan Cohen

* v
* t
* e

Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

* Ben Edlund and Richard Liebmann-Smith (1995)
* Jason Butler Rote and Paul Rudish (1997)
* Charles M. Howell IV, Earl Kress and John Ludin (1998)
* Tim Long, Larry Doyle and Matt Selman (1999)
* Steve Young (2000)
* Ron Weiner (2001)
* Norm Hiscock (2002)
* Matt Warburton (2003)
* Etan Cohen (2004)
* C. H. Greenblatt, Paul Tibbitt, Mike Bell and Tim Hill (2005)
* Ian Maxtone-Graham (2006)
* Ian Maxtone-Graham and Billy Kimball (2007)
* Tom Root, Doug Goldstein, Hugh Davidson, Mike Fasolo, Seth Green, Dan Milano, Matthew Senreich, Kevin Shinick, Zeb Wells and Breckin Meyer (2008)
* Daniel Chun (2009)
* Geoff Johns, Matthew Beans, Zeb Wells, Hugh Sterbakov, Matthew Senreich, Breckin Meyer, Seth Green, Mike Fasolo, Doug Goldstein, Tom Root, Dan Milano, Kevin Shinick and Hugh Davidson (2010)
* Carolyn Omine (2011)
* Trey Parker (2012)
* Lewis Morton (2013)
* Darrick Bachman (2014)
* Steven Davis and Kelvin Yu (2015)
* Lizzie Molyneux and Wendy Molyneux (2016)
* Ryan Ridley and Dan Guterman (2017)
* Stephanie Simpson (2018)
* Shauna McGarry (2019)
* Andrew Goldberg and Patti Harrison (2020)
* Christian Linke and Alex Yee (2021)
* Andrew Kevin Walker (2022)
* Amber Noizumi (2023)

* v
* t
* e

Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director

1980s|

* Robert Greenwald – Xanadu (1980)
* Michael Cimino – Heaven's Gate (1981)
* Ken Annakin – The Pirate Movie / Terence Young – Inchon (1982)
* Peter Sasdy – The Lonely Lady (1983)
* John Derek – Bolero (1984)
* Sylvester Stallone – Rocky IV (1985)
* Prince – Under the Cherry Moon (1986)
* Norman Mailer – Tough Guys Don't Dance / Elaine May – Ishtar (1987)
* Blake Edwards – Sunset / Stewart Raffill – Mac and Me (1988)
* William Shatner – Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

1990s|

* John Derek – Ghosts Can't Do It (1990)
* Michael Lehmann – Hudson Hawk (1991)
* David Seltzer – Shining Through (1992)
* Jennifer Lynch – Boxing Helena (1993)
* Steven Seagal – On Deadly Ground (1994)
* Paul Verhoeven – Showgirls (1995)
* Andrew Bergman – Striptease (1996)
* Kevin Costner – The Postman (1997)
* Gus Van Sant – Psycho (1998)
* Barry Sonnenfeld – Wild Wild West (1999)

2000s|

* Roger Christian – Battlefield Earth (2000)
* Tom Green – Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
* Guy Ritchie – Swept Away (2002)
* Martin Brest – Gigli (2003)
* Pitof – Catwoman (2004)
* John Asher – Dirty Love (2005)
* M. Night Shyamalan – Lady in the Water (2006)
* Chris Sivertson – I Know Who Killed Me (2007)
* Uwe Boll – In the Name of the King, Postal, and Tunnel Rats (2008)
* Michael Bay – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

2010s|

* M. Night Shyamalan – The Last Airbender (2010)
* Dennis Dugan – Jack and Jill and Just Go with It (2011)
* Bill Condon – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)
* Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Peter Farrelly, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner, and Jonathan van Tulleken – Movie 43 (2013)
* Michael Bay – Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
* Josh Trank – Fantastic Four (2015)
* Dinesh D'Souza and Bruce Schooley – Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (2016)
* Tony Leondis – The Emoji Movie (2017)
* Etan Cohen – Holmes & Watson (2018)
* Tom Hooper – Cats (2019)

2020s|

* Sia – Music (2020/21)
* Christopher Ashley – Diana the Musical (2021)
* Colson Baker and Mod Sun – Good Mourning (2022)

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* Spain
* France
* BnF data
* Germany
* Israel
* United States
* Czech Republic
* Korea
* Poland

Other|

* SNAC
* IdRef

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