Rob Hardy



Rob Hardy, Jr. is an American television and film director.

Biography
Hardy grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Greene Street Friends School. He began his directing career as a high-school senior with the movie G-Man, which was shot with a camcorder. While pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Florida A&M University, he switched to film with the low-budget movie Chocolate City, which earned him the highest honor of the institution, the Bernard Hendricks Student Leadership Award. This helped Hardy and his film partner William Packer found the film production company Rainforest Films. The underground buzz on the project soon led to his controversial film Trois, which he not only directed and co-wrote, but was also instrumental in self-distributing the project to be the fastest indie African-American film to pass the $1 million mark in the box office.

In 2003, after directing the critically-acclaimed thriller film Trois 2: Pandora's Box, he became a co-producer after collaborating with Packer to produce Motives, and later, Trois: The Escort. Hardy then wrote and directed the spiritually-themed drama film The Gospel, produced the accompanying concert film The Gospel Live, and executive-produced both Puff, Puff, Pass and Stomp The Yard, the latter of which held the number-one position at the box office for two weekends in January 2007 and was later named Best Movie at the 2007 BET Hip Hop Awards. Hardy then went on to work on several other following projects, including Stomp The Yard: Homecoming and Think Like a Man.

Hardy then began directing episodes for TV series, starting with ER in 2008. He has since worked on a variety of hit TV shows, such as Bones, Criminal Minds, The Vampire Diaries, 90210, and The Game. He also began directing commercials for clients, including CNN, TBS, American Honda, Coca-Cola, Georgia Lottery, and The National Cancer Institute. Hardy also came to co-found Bounce TV, an American television network airing on digital terrestrial television stations. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created exclusively for African Americans", Bounce TV launched on September 26, 2011, and currently features programming geared toward African-Americans in the 25–54 age range. On January 9, 2014, Hardy was nominated for the 45th NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series, specifically referring to his work on Criminal Minds.

Criminal Minds

 * The Big Wheel
 * Solitary Man
 * Coda
 * The Bittersweet Science
 * The Wheels on the Bus
 * Carbon Copy