Rob Hardy

Hardy shot his first substantive video on camcorder, G-Man, while a high school senior at the George School. He shot his first work on film, Chocolate City, while at Florida A&M University, for which he earned the university's Bernard Hendricks Student Leadership Award. The success of Chocolate City helped Hardy and his film partner Will Packer launch Rainforest Films. Hardy's next film, the erotic thriller Trois, saw him as director, co-writer, and self-distributor. Trois became the fastest Independent African-American film to pass the US$1 million mark. A critically acclaimed sequel, Trois 2: Pandora's Box, followed. In 2003, Hardy produced his first film, Motives, followed by the third in the Trois franchise, the direct-to-video Trois: The Escort.

Hardy then wrote and directed the spiritually-themed drama The Gospel, and produced the companion concert film The Gospel Live. He then was the executive producer on Mekhi Phifer's directorial film debut Puff, Puff, Pass, followed by Stomp The Yard, which held the No. 1 position at the box office for two weekends in January 2007 and was named Best Movie at the 2007 BET Hip Hop Awards. Subsequent projects included Stomp The Yard: Homecoming and Think Like a Man.

Hardy and Packer mutually dissolved Rainforest Films in June 2014. They were subsequently sued by business partner Bernard Bronner for mismanagement and misappropriation of corporate assets.

In March 2015, Hardy launched Rainforest Entertainment. He announced that the new production company will focus on developing scripted and non-scripted content for film, television and digital platforms. Hardy hired Mitzi Miller to serve as Head of Development for the film, television and digital media production company and her offices will be based in Los Angeles.

Since his 2008 dive into TV directing with ER, Hardy has worked on a variety of hit TV shows like Bones, Criminal Minds, The Vampire Diaries, 90210, The Game and The Flash and has begun directing commercial projects for clients, including CNN, TBS, American Honda, Coca-Cola, Georgia Lottery and The National Cancer Institute.

Along with Andrew Young, Martin Luther King III, and Rainforest Films partner Will Packer, Hardy is co-founder of Bounce TV, a United States 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 features programming geared toward blacks and African Americans in the 25–54 age range.

Hardy was nominated on January 9, 2014, for the 45th NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series for his work on Criminal Minds. More recently, he signed a deal with Lionsgate.