Before Quinnipiac, Cohen found himself interested in all things film, from taking every film/video course offered at his high school, to creating his own videos outside of school for fun, and eventually creating a short film for his high school’s film festival.

Naturally, this translated to Cohen’s major choice of film, television and media arts. Writing was also something Cohen consistently turned to, more specifically, storytelling.

Screenwriting 101 ignited Cohen’s passion for the road ahead, making it easier for him to identify where he could use these two passions together, academically and professionally.

“I've always had this innate desire for storytelling. And I'll never forget the way I felt during my first class of Screenwriting 101 with Professor David Atkins,” said Cohen. “I was hanging on every word he said, as if it were gospel.”

Listening to the lectures and all of Atkins' teachings helped Cohen realize his passions, he explained.

“He inspired me so much in that class,” said Cohen. “His passion for screenwriting was so evident in the way he spoke about it and it played a great role in growing my own passion. Because for the first time, someone else was speaking my language."

Cohen began researching opportunities for post-graduation, and even accepted an internship at a production company in Los Angeles the summer before graduation.

“By the time I graduated, I had my plan — I was going to move out to Los Angeles and work my way into a writers' room,” said Cohen. “And that's exactly what I did. But it wasn't as easy as 1-2-3…"

Graduation came and went, and that summer of 2014 Cohen moved to Los Angeles. At first, he was working unpaid internships and production assistant gigs, knowing this wasn’t his end goal. But alongside these opportunities came experience, learning the ins and outs of the industry and finding out where he would best fit within it.

“I started to look at everything a little differently,” said Cohen. “For instance, rather than look at these unpaid internships as road blocks slowing me down on my journey, I started to look at them as opportunities, gainful pit stops along the way. And looking back now, I cherish every one of those pit stops.”

Hard work, dedication and the willingness to say “yes” paid off, a connection and mentor to Cohen asked if he would take a production assistant role on the TV show "Justified" at FX. Cohen, without hesitation, took it, and continued to work as a production assistant for the rest of the season. This led to more production assistant gigs, paid, for many different TV shows for a couple years.

The sets changed, but Cohen’s mentality stayed the same.

“My mentality was simple and remains to be my mentality to this day: Do the job at hand — no matter how big or small — to the best of my ability,” said Cohen. “If I did that, I felt that, perhaps, I could gain respect on the shows I was working for and, maybe, the producers and writers would ask me what my ultimate goal was. I didn't ever want to be too eager. But when they asked, I was also never shy. And that led to my first opportunity in a writers' room.”

This mentality opened tons of doors for Cohen, he had the opportunity to work as an assistant in the writers' room of “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” a show that was never fully released, to then working as a writers production assistant for one of Netflix’s most popular original series, “You.”

“After I started the job, I quickly knew that this was the show I wanted to call home. Why? Because my bosses, Sera Gamble and Greg Berlanti, were the exact kind of mentors I was looking for. It was clear they were not only really good at what they did, but that they took a genuine interest in the people who worked for them as well.”

Cohen’s journey with “You” started during season one as a writers production assistant, season two working as the showrunners assistant, season three writing his first episode, season four being promoted to staff writer and Season five, he was promoted to story editor.

“I'm really proud to have been a part of the show “You” from start to finish. It's a special feeling to be there since day one on a TV show, especially one that started as a quiet little show on Lifetime, got canceled, then became a hit when it got picked up by Netflix,” explained Cohen. “Quite the journey and one that I will forever be proud to have been a part of alongside some of the greatest people I've ever had the pleasure of working with.”

Looking back at his years at Quinnipiac, Cohen remains thankful for the professors who left an incredible impact on his journey to success; David Atkins, Liam O'Brien and Fritz Staudmyer.

One course that Cohen took consisted of shooting a few documentaries in South Africa, with a dozen other students led by Professor Emeritus Liam O'Brien.

“It was an unbelievable experience in and of itself, but some of Liam's teachings have really stayed with me. The most notable is that Liam taught me that the only way you will ever truly succeed is if you are brave enough to fail. In fact, he taught us that it is crucial to fail. Because that is how you truly learn,” said Cohen. 

Cohen urges students looking for success in the film industry to be go-getters, find your niche and make connections.

“You have to really want it. Why? Because it's not easy to break in and honestly never really gets any easier once you do. But if you really want it, it'll always be worth it,” said Cohen.