Cory Edwards

Cory Edwards (born August 21, 1968 in Anderson, Indiana, U.S.) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and stand‑up comedian whose career has spanned more than three decades, beginning in the early 1990s and continuing to the present day. Raised in a deeply religious household, he is the son of James L. Edwards, a former university president and pastor, and Deanna Monteith, an educator, and he grew up alongside his younger brother Todd and sister Katie, all of whom shared an early fascination with storytelling, puppet shows, and makeshift radio programs. By the age of seven or eight the Edwards siblings were already experimenting with their family’s Super 8 camera, producing a series of home‑made short films such as Movie Stuff, a superhero comedy called Captain Lightning directed by Cory, and an action‑adventure featuring a character named Jack Francisco. Their increasingly ambitious productions involved elaborate storyboards, homemade sets, miniature models, costumes, and community‑sourced extras, and Cory frequently turned these projects into school assignments that earned national recognition. After graduating from Anderson University in 1990 with a major in Broadcasting and a minor in Art, he hosted the Christian music video program Signal Exchange on the INSP network and interned at an Ohio animation studio, experiences that honed his skills in both live‑action and animation. The breakthrough moment arrived when a private investor, Maurice Kanbar, funded the trio’s modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, which was later acquired by The Weinstein Company and released as Hoodwinked! in 2005; the film’s modest budget and clever twist on a classic fairy tale propelled it to a worldwide gross of over $110 million. Edwards co‑wrote and voiced characters in the sequel Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011) and later contributed to projects such as Escape from Planet Earth (2013), multiple episodes of the beloved VeggieTales series, and the innovative web series Roger Cosmonkey, billed as the first ever Twitter series. He also created and starred in the internet cartoon Krogzilla for Shut Up! Cartoons and has performed stand‑up comedy for Dry Bar Comedy, demonstrating his versatility across media. A committed Christian, Cory remains active in his local Bel Air Presbyterian Church’s drama department and continues to develop new animated content, including writing for the upcoming adaptation of The Wingfeather Saga.