Catharine Cooke is a seasoned, award-winning television director. Her most recent critically acclaimed television series includes White Lies (2024). The Times London recommended White Lies as the number one watched show on Channel 4 when it was released. Reyka Season 1 (2021) is still the most widely sold tv show to come out of South Africa, Reyka Season 2 (2023), which also went onto be sold in the USA and UK territories The Girl from St. Agnes (2019) amongst other series and tv shows for South African and International platforms.
She has received several South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) nominations and has three wins to her name. In 2022, Catharine won the SAFTA for Best Achievement in Directing (TV Drama) for the thriller series Reyka, also known as The Cane Field Killings in some countries. The series was nominated for an International Emmy Award for Best Drama in 2023. In 2017, she bagged the SAFTA for Best Achievement in Directing (TV Drama) for iNumber Number.
Eclectic and flexible in style, Catharine enjoys working on dynamic, collaborative projects and is skilled at maintaining the creative vision throughout production. Her taste is for stories that push the boundaries of genre, and she has an innate talent for fast-paced action and dark drama that is both commercially and critically appealing.
Driven by passion and quality execution, she seeks out fresh, unique narratives with well-constructed plots and populated by fully developed characters that demonstrate depth and complexity.
Catharine has now turned her focus towards story development of South African stories for both the local and international markets.
Television
Summertide (2024)
White Lies (2024)
Miseducation (2023)
Reyka S1 & S2 (2022)
The River (2021)
Legacy (2020-2023)
The Girl from St Agnes (2019)
iNumber Number (2017)
Swartwater (2017)
Jamillah and Aladdin (2016)
