Meet Rodney Hooks | Photographer, Videographer, and Cosplayer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rodney Hooks and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rodney, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
“Failure is a part of the process.” As an anxious, ex-perfectionist and recovering people pleaser, I’ve used that phrase to inch my way towards becoming a better friend, coworker, and artist. There is something calming and even invigorating about acknowledging that failure is not a waste nor a mistake, but a necessary path towards progress. I realized that my “sudden” growth as a content creator was due to embracing a more positive and healthy relationship with risk.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
Currently, a lot of people know me as “the cosplayer who wears suits and makes cool videos.” People love the quality, precision, and realism that I bring to the art of cosplay. I’m also known for my vibrant poses and expressions. Most of my cosplays are made from suits, styled to portray certain characters. I think a lot of people enjoy the costuming aspect of cosplay while I really enjoy the “play” aspect. I rarely style my hair and don’t have too many fancy props. I focus a lot more on bringing a character to life through video skits and physicality rather than the crafting and makeup processes.

Thanks to exploring cosplay, my social media presence grew exponentially in 2021. Because of this, a lot of people don’t realize that while I have only been cosplaying for about two years, I’ve been improving in other fields for much longer than that. I was a musician, martial artist, physiology major, and an artist prior. Cosplay was just the next big thing to add to the mix! In retrospect, the biggest factor that contributed to my growth was getting comfortable with trying the scarier ideas and expressing the depths of my mind to the Internet. In the past, I had about one or two “scrapped” videos a year. I would limit my ideas to things that seemed doable. Last year, I had at least 30 or so ideas that I filmed and committed to, but ended up deleting because they were too difficult. I started chasing the concepts that I wasn’t sure if I could pull off, but was interested in. As a result, I experienced the most improvement in my videos, gaining over 20 million and 100,000 followers on Tiktok! My artistic development has been directly tied to my development as a person. Learning how to stand up for myself helped with negotiating business and dealing with hate comments. Taking myself less seriously improved my acting. Being an athlete opened up a performance that many people can’t pull off with their cosplays.

Recently, I got to work with Viz Media, a large manga publisher. With the help of three friends two musicians and an anime-loving photographer/videographer), I made two official ads for Viz Media’s Shonen Jump manga app. It felt like the “You’ve made it” moment for me. In both ads, I cosplayed as my most popular character, Nanami Kento, from the manga and anime, Jujutsu Kaisen. I was an actor, editor, director, martial artist, and sound designer. The best part about all of this was that my success didn’t come at the expense of my happiness. For years, sometimes my videos got as low as 16 views. I continued to create and had pride in my work. I refused to make anything that I didn’t have an interest in. The greatest feeling is knowing that people genuinely love you and your work, and not a version of yourself or your work that you created to be loved!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I usually meet my friends in Denver so they have the option of hanging out in the downtown Denver area or visiting other spots like Boulder, Breckenridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, or the beloved Garden of the Gods. They’re not for everyone, but I’m a sucker for art museums. I’m always down to see what’s happening at the Denver Art Museum or Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. The RiNo district in general, Denver Milk Market, and Zeppelin Station have some pretty fun vibes. If I remember correctly, on the first(?) Saturday of every month, there’s an art walk… Somewhere in Denver. Some of my friends are into martial arts and tricking, so we’d visit the Flip Shack in Colorado Springs or Cats gymnastics in Boulder. For breakfast, there’s Waffle Brothers, Third Culture Bakery for some mochi donuts, and Tokyo Premium Bakery. We love ramen, so we’d visited Sera’s Ramen Enclave, Menya Noodle Bar, Uncle Ramen. Osteria Marco has some great Italian food. A lot of my friends are Asian/Asian American so I was introduced to Federal Blvd and some other amazing restaurants. Some usual go-to’s include Funny Plus, Mono Mono, or Bonchon for Korean fried chicken, Star Kitchen for Dim Sum, and Yummy Hot Pot. Tea Street is a favorite boba shop – The owners are really cool. I’m not much of a nightlife guy so 1UP is my happy compromise. Otherwise, I’d leave it up to my friends to decide what to do.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
A big part of my growth as a person and an artist came from the Taekwondo and hip-hop communities that I got connected with during college. Both had similar themes of taking risks, committing, exploration, and community. I tried to relate these mindsets and lessons to my daily life. Out of all of the lessons, I think commitment really stuck with me. In Taekwondo this looked like following through with an attack even when your opponent dodged or countered you. With dance, it meant continuing even when you stumbled or forgot choreography. In life, it meant making a decision, being confident with your choice, and performing to the best of your ability without being hindered by the idea of making a mistake.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rj_hooks/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rj_hooks

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/rodneyhooksjr

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rj_hooks

Image Credits
Russell Klimas/Light and Lense