TV and film director Rob Hardy brings out the best in those around him. He loves people and telling their stories on screens both large and small.

He keeps up with his GSFS classmates and sometimes runs into alumni on set, as he did with actor Eugene Byrd ’89 while directing the TV show, Bones.

Rob values the sense of innocence from his school days: “It was a friendly place. In the middle of Philly there was this safe place for you to be a kid.” He learned lessons about everything from sportsmanship to fashion; once you bought a stylish outfit, you couldn’t wear it more than once a week. Rob enjoyed the free expression that GSFS encouraged, including being honest and open.

Rob’s interest in filmmaking took off when he took a video elective with Dave Quick. For one assignment he had to write and shoot a sketch using his classmates as performers. He remembers a video that featured Spanish teacher Mirna Szymanski, classmate Sonia Szymanski’s aunt. When they showed their video, “It was the first time we could see people react to what we are doing,” Rob recalls. It was exhilarating.

He now lives in Atlanta, which is the number three film market after New York and LA, and he launched Rainforest Films in 1994. While still a college student, he and a fraternity brother, Will Packer, shot Chocolate City, a film that attracted attention. Florida A & M, his alma mater, awarded him Bernard Hendricks Student Leadership Award, the institution’s highest honor, for his work on the film.

It was the right time. The Blaxploitation films of the 1970s gave way to new directors like Robert Townsend, The Hughes Brothers, John Singleton and Spike Lee. Rainforest Films began in the era of burgeoning independent films, and the company focused on programming for Black audiences.

Rob has directed or produced a wide variety of films including Think Like a Man, No Good Deed, About Last Night, The Gospel, Trois, and Stomp the Yard about a young man from tough circumstances who unexpectedly attends a historically black college.

Now Rob focusses on directing television shows such as Empire, Power, The Flash, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Bones, Being Mary Jane and The Vampire Diaries. Working on television is “like shooting a mini movie every week,” Rob says. Given the strong demand for diverse programming, Rob says that it is “a really good time to be a person of color in entertainment.”

Greene Street Friends School remains important to him because of its tight knit community. “There was honesty, integrity and purity in those relationships. I met really cool people during a really interesting time in my life. It was great.”