Elliot Kotek

Elliot Kotek is the multi-award winning, internationally recognised CEO and founder of The Nation of Artists and Co-founder of Not Impossible. He is also a former M&A/Biotech Venture Capital attorney in Australia and New York.

Elliot is a social entrepreneur who creates projects based in the sphere of science and technology, ensuring they are accessible, and deliver real impact to real people in real need.

An in-demand speaker world-wide, Elliot regularly addresses law firm functions; as a social entrepreneur, he often addresses business schools, as a branded content and cause marketing expert, he is regularly invited to address advertising agencies and their clients, and as the producer of inspiring content around technologies, he’s asked to speak on innovation and inspiration to a wide range of audiences.

In a world where people are preaching the ‘Three P’s’ of People, Planet, Profit, Elliot Kotek goes one further. His ‘Four P’ strategy goes like this: When you find something you’re Passionate about, it will define your Purpose. When you share your purpose, you’ll find your People. And when you have your people, anything is Possible.

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Elliot is passionate about disrupting systems that have long been inaccessible to those with limited resources. That’s why he established The Nation of Artists, a social good content production company that creates feature documentaries, integrated media campaigns, branded content collaboration and digital editorial platforms. Projects undertaken by The Nation of Artists includes the multi-awarded Queen Mimi, and Raise My Hands – a tribute to Nelson Mandela. With The Nation of Artists, he has also produced content for Participant Media, the social good content company behind An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night and Good Luck, The Help, Lincoln and Spotlight; and created branded content with purpose for Hyundai, Walmart Health & Wellness, and Qualcomm. Additionally he has partnered to produce content with National Geographic, Fast Company, GOOD and Upworthy and has directed several virtual reality pieces.

As CEO of Not Impossible, Elliot effected change through projects that include the Eyewriter (Time magazine’s Top 50 inventions), the Brainwriter, Project Daniel (an award winning 3-D printed prosthetic project featured in Time magazine, MSN, WIred UK & more), the Alex Mouse and more! As well as founding Not Impossible, Elliot Kotek has been the producer and executive creative producer of award-winning branded content, the editor in chief of NotImpossibleNow.com and he leads the Not Impossible Foundation.

A past editor-in-chief of Beyond Cinema, Moving Pictures magazine and Celebs.com, and former journalist for The Hollywood Reporter, MovieMaker, Movies.com/Fandango, Distinction for The LA Times, GQ & Details’ Style.com, Flaunt and a slew of other publications, Elliot has served on the juries of film festivals worldwide. Elliot has interviewed everyone from Elmo to Elon Musk and 1,000 other global thought leaders including winners of more than 100 Oscars and, a Noble Peace Prize. With a weekly segment on ABC radio, he delivers coverage of all things entertainment to an estimated one million listeners. He’s the founder and editor-in-chief of Beyond Cinema magazine, the former editor-in-chief of both Moving Pictures and Celebs.com, and he has hosted events for Film Independent, the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America and film festivals globally.

As a branded-content director working with the social responsibility and non-profit teams at Accenture, Aflac, California Almonds, FIRST Robotics, HP, Hyundai, Intel, LEGO, McKinsey & Company, New Balance, Participant Media, Qualcomm and Sony, Elliot’s documentaries, docu-series and Virtual Reality projects have included the first ever user-generated feature film (“140”), the world’s first 3D-printing prosthetics lab (“Project Daniel”), a social robot duck with four patents that was named to TIME’s Inventions of the Year list (“My Special Aflac Duck”), a documentary about a female sumo wrestler then named to the BBC’s List of 100 Most Influential Women (“Little Miss Sumo”), and other landmark impact projects.

Distributed on Netflix, CNBC, National Geographic, NBC’s PeacockTV, Facebook Watch, FastCompany, UpWorthy and numerous other outlets, pieces produced and directed by Elliot and his Nation of Artists have eclipsed 5 billion media impressions and earned shiny paperweights that include four innovation awards from SXSW, five Cannes Lions, four Emmy nominations (with a win), two Clios, 21 Tellys, 13 Communicator Awards, 8 Hermes Creative Awards, two Webby honors, a Stevie, three Maggies, a Craft Award, archiving at the Museum of Modern Art, PRWeek’s Top 25 Campaigns of the Decade, TEDMED’s Hive selection, and numerous other lists and film festival honors.

In addition to the recent release of “Black Boys,” Elliot is currently producing a documentary about Danica Patrick, executive producing the housing affordability crisis doc “90291: Venice Unzipped,” and executive producing “suWo” about the double standards facing aspiring women athletes in Japan’s national sport.

Elliot’s magazines have received many accolades and his branded content and campaign work has been recognised with three Cannes Lions (including the Titanium Lion), five Telly Awards, four One Show Awards, two Clios, AICP awards, recognition from TEDMED, Nominet Trust, NYU, and archiving at MoMA.

Elliot’s speaking engagements include three consecutive featured keynotes at SxSW, the opening keynote at SIGGRAPH and NxNE (Canada), and keynotes at the Social Innovation Summit and the US Chamber of Commerce’s Corporate Citizenship Conference (both in Washington, DC), at the Up Experience in Houston, the Dell Entrepreneur’s Summit in Berlin, Social Innovation Week, UCLA’s Anderson School of Business, Grey Advertising New York, Sid Lee Advertising Agency New York, Pioneer Summit Silicon Valley, and at Nexus Global Youth Summit at the United Nations.

Elliot Kotek holds a Law Degree, a BSc in Pharmacology & Toxicology, and he studied at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York and completed UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting.

Elliot has received extensive international recognition. In 2017 alone he received the United States Congress Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition; United States House of Representatives Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition; and the State of California Senate Certificate of Recognition in honor of Outstanding Community Service – “in special recognition of his unyielding commitment to civic engagement, leadership and inspiring women”. Additionally, he received the Social Impact Media Award for “Superhuman”. He is the recipient of back to back SxSW Innovation Awards, received the Kellogg School of Management Innovation Fellow for 2016 and the 2015 Monash University Distinguished Alumni Award winner for the Faculty of Science.

In 2017 Elliot Kotek joined the Board of directors of The Giving Back Fund, the official philanthropic partner of the NFL players, and was appointed to the 2017 Leadership Council of the Classy Awards.

Elliot is also an advisor to UCLA’s BioDesign program, and recently partnered with SpaceX, University of Cincinnati and UCLA alumni to found VentLife.org to conceptualize, create and curate low-cost FDA-approvable ventilators for use during the COVID crisis and beyond.

Elliot Kotek talks about:

• Storytelling for social good
• Using technology for humanity’s sake
• Innovation
• Cause marketing and advertising

As Elliot Kotek says, “By helping one person we can all inspire others to do the same – it’s our “Help One Help Many’ philosophy and it breaks down barriers, enabling greater access to all in need.”