Justin Cooper Hankinson was born and raised in Springfield, Illinois, and has been enamored with entertainment from a very early age. Despite this love, it wasn’t until his junior year of high school that he became a participant in the arts, playing multiple roles in a German-language adaptation of ‘Young Frankenstein’. His senior year, he filmed, acted in, and edited a short for a school project and discovered that his true passions lie in storytelling. In 2016, Justin graduated from Southern Illinois University with a major in Cinema & Photography and a minor in Radio, Television and Digital Media. He moved to Los Angeles two weeks later, where he got his start in the industry interning at the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women.
Justin has been employed on the FOX Network hit show ‘The Masked Singer’ since its second season and currently holds the title of Producer in post-production. Along the way, he has continued to explore his varied interests in both film and television with crossovers into acting, directing, editing, set dressing and more. In 2020, Justin wrote, produced, directed and edited his first independent short film, Model Citizen. It premiered at the Silicon Beach Film Festival and went on to feature in over 20 festivals worldwide, screening at the TCL Chinese Theater and receiving accolades for acting, cinematography, overall filmmaking, and a jury choice award. The experience culminated with its inclusion in the launch lineup of Vidiverse in February 2021. Since then, Justin has continued to pursue a variety of film projects.
Currently on the festival circuit are two films Justin co-stars in and produced: The Ask, a short drama that tells the story of three adult siblings dealing with their estranged mother’s quest to adopt a young child, as well as The Garage, a short comedy based on a disturbing true-life experience of Justin’s. In addition, he recently completed work on a horror feature film, Washerwoman, in which he acted, co-produced and served as an editor/sound designer. He is currently in production on Helper, a short film that tells a story about a caregiver who who learns a lesson in empathy when trying to help their elderly client.
Justin’s greatest filmmaking influences are George Lucas, Peter Jackson and Kevin Smith: Firstly, it was the world building of Star Wars that stoked the fires of his imagination as a child. Then it was the documentaries about the making of The Lord of the Rings that were instrumental in peeling back the curtain on how just how fun and challenging working on films could be. Finally, Clerks showed him that one person with a dream and without a giant studio behind them could forge their own path to success in this industry. Overall, Justin aspires to entertain, inform, and inspire audiences with his projects regardless of genre. His dream acting role is to play a lawyer that wins a hard fought case, and his dream project is to direct a live action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
