Billy Corben

Billy Corben
Corben at the 2017 Miami International Film Festival
Born	William Cohen 1978

William Cohen (born 1978), better known by the stage name Billy Corben, is an American documentary film director. As a co-founder of the Miami-based studio Rakontur, along with producing partner Alfred Spellman, he has created films such as Cocaine Cowboys, Dawg Fight, and ESPN's 30 for 30 The U and The U Part 2.

Corben was born in Fort Myers, Florida and raised in South Florida. As a child actor, he spent a large portion of his early days in Los Angeles, California. He graduated with honors from the University of Miami, where he majored in political science, screenwriting, and theater.

His feature documentary directorial debut, Raw Deal: A Question of Consent, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, making him one of the youngest directors in Sundance history. Examining the alleged rape of an exotic dancer at a fraternity house at the University of Florida, the film utilized extensive clips from videotape footage of the alleged assault. Anthony Miele of Film Threat said of Raw Deal, “Billy Corben has stumbled onto one of the most controversial films of the modern day,” calling it “one of the most compelling pieces of non-fiction ever produced”.

Following Raw Deal, Corben and producing partner Alfred Spellman founded rakontur, a Miami Beach-based content creation company, where they created Cocaine Cowboys. The New York Times called Cocaine Cowboys, “a hyperventilating account of the blood-drenched Miami drug culture in the 1970s and 1980s.” The film tells the story of how the drug trade built Miami through firsthand accounts of some of the most successful smugglers of the era and the deadliest hitman of the cocaine wars.