Fredric Joseph “Rik” Cordero (born March 21, 1979) is an award winning independent music video, commercial, and film director of Filipino descent. He was born and raised in Queens, New York and is known for applying unusual, non-traditional shooting methods in his work. He is also the founder and executive producer of the New York based production company Three/21 Films, founded in 1999.

EARLY LIFE
Cordero was born in Far Rockaway, New York, the son of Beatriz Parcon, a registered nurse, and Federico Cordero, an architect. As a child, his mother nicknamed him “Ricky” after watching episodes of I Love Lucy while she was pregnant. Cordero moved with his family to Long Island, New York at the age of 10. In Long Island, he attended Baldwin Senior High School (Baldwin, New York) and later enrolled at the New York Institute of Technology where he majored in Computer Graphics. Although he was studying traditional fine arts, Cordero gravitated towards video art and motion graphics using consumer camcorders and post production software. His senior thesis project titled Duck Sauce, a five minute 3D animation, won the NYIT SOURCE (Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression) Award. He graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Graphics.

DESIGN CAREER
After college Cordero honed his graphic design skills for Masterdisk, a New York based audio mastering/multimedia facility. After two years he began working as a freelance graphic designer for various entertainment production companies such as 4Kids Entertainment (an American Film and television production company), Deep Focus (marketing and interactive agency) and Alloy Media (marketing and media agency). After four years working in the graphic design industry, Cordero pursued filmmaking fulltime in 2007 with the help of Three/21 Films.

THREE/21 FILMS
Launched in 1999 by Cordero as a side hobby, Three/21 was created with a mission to produce innovative music videos, documentaries, shorts and narrative features by any means necessary. With little regard for formal training, permits or rules, they instead focus on unique and non-traditional solutions for any given situation. The first feature-length film produced by Three/21 was the prescription drug drama Mend which received independent distribution in 2006. It was during the production of Mend that Cordero met his muse and partner Nancy Mitchell. In 2007, on the set of Consequence’s Uncle Rahiem music video shoot, Brady Nields joined Three/21 as Cordero’s key grip and gaffer. The following year elevated Three/21 from a hobby to one of the fastest and most independent film production companies on the Internet.

DIRECTING CAREER
In 2007, Cordero met Steven Carless of Best of Both Offices and All Bets Down Entertainment, who at the time was an employee for Def Jam Recordings. Within a few months they formed a professional relationship that combined guerilla filmmaking techniques with marketing and promotion on Internet and radio. Alongside Carless and with the backing of Three/21 Films, Cordero pioneered the landscape of independent Hip Hop music videos by directing major recording artists such as Jay-Z, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, The Roots, Q-Tip, Ghostface Killah, Consequence, Beanie Sigel and John Legend, legends such as KRS-One, DJ Premier, Darryl McDaniels, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and respected MC’s such as Skillz, Wale, Joell Ortiz, Joe Budden, Smif-N-Wessun, Heltah Skeltah, Buckshot and Royce Da 5’9″. The Fader has proclaimed his music videos as miracles while the wildly popular Hip Hop blog nahright.com has called him the only Hip Hop video director on the planet. Recently, Cordero has been nominated for Video Director Of The Year at the 2009 BET Awards which aired on Sunday June 28, 2009. Other nominees included Hype Williams, Chris Robinson, Benny Boom and Gil Green. On August 3, 2009, Cordero was the recipient of the 2009 Best Film Award for his feature film, Inside A Change which made its world premiere at the 2009 HBO New York International Latino Film Festival. He is currently repped by Robin Frank Management and Robot Films. In 2010, Cordero will be seen in Sprite’s print and television ads for their “Spark” campaign. The ads feature him as a Hollywood director discovering inspiration in very unlikely ways.