Natalie Cook is a filmmaker, poet, and theater-maker.

Natalie’s poetry film, BACKWARDS GOD, received the Best Social Justice Film at the New York International Film Awards, the Best Mini Short at the Media Done Responsibly Film Festival, and was the Grand Prize Winner of the AT&T Film Awards. She is a 2021 Screenwriting Development Fellow at the NYU Production Lab, and was selected for the Directing the Actor Lab with the Alliance of Women Directors.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Natalie began showcasing her gift for poetry at a very young age. And because poetry had such a positive impact on her life, she founded Atlanta Word Works, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, when she was only sixteen in hopes that young people would find ways to express themselves through creative writing and spoken word poetry, just as she had. Natalie served as the Executive Director and Artistic Director of Atlanta Word Works for eight years. Atlanta Word Works merged with VOX ATL in 2016.

Aside from teaching aspiring poets in Atlanta Word Works, she has also taught numerous workshops in writing, spoken word, and poetry-film at Amherst College, Syracuse University, Bowdoin College, the Global Village Project, and more. Natalie was once a competing member of the Atlanta slam team that she coached from 2011-2016 (Brave New Voices), has individually won several writing contests and poetry slams, and has performed at many venues around the country and across the globe. She has opened for activists and artists such as Congressman John Lewis, John Legend, Nikki Giovanni, Saul Williams, Sonia Sanchez, and MC Lyte. Natalie is also the writer and director of MANIKIN, an interdisciplinary production that explores gender relations between Black men and Black women living in modern day America. MANIKIN toured throughout Atlanta and was also featured in the Line Breaks Festival, the Chicago Hip Hop Theater Festival, and the NYU Gallatin Arts Festival.

Natalie earned her Master's degree at NYU where she designed an interdisciplinary program that combines Film, Black Studies, and Art Education. She is also a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned degrees in both English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing and Afro-American Studies. She is an alumna of the First Wave Hip Hop Theatre Ensemble, the BARS Workshop at The Public Theater, and the Gates Millennium Scholars Program. Natalie is currently a member of the part-time faculty at Parsons School of Design at The New School.