Meet R.D. Copsey

R.D. Copsey’s writing career spans more than four decades. In addition to writing novels he has also written in a variety of mediums from screenplays to documentary films, TV commercials and magazines. Along the way he has worked as an actor, director, producer, radio DJ and paperboy.

As a writer/director/producer in film and video for over 40 years, his work includes a wide range of environmental, wildlife and sports documentaries, as well as a long list of corporate/industrial promotional and image videos for national and international clients, and numerous radio and award winning television commercials.  Most notable among these are The Idaho Forest, and Journey of the Kings, a documentary examination of the salmon runs in the rivers of the Columbia Basin. 

In association with Jalbert Productions of New York, Official Film Producer for the U.S. Ski Team for many years, he and Jalbert created a package of nationally syndicated outdoor sports television shows that ran for more than 15 years. In addition to writing and directing those shows and dozens of other productions for Jalbert, he was Co-Producer, Director and Writer for One Light One World - Official Film of the 1992 Olympic Winter Games, which was nominated for an Emmy and won a Silver Medal at the New York International Film Festival. 

  In 2001 he accepted the position of Venue Producer with the Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, where he headed the Sport Production team at the Snowbasin venue for both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics.  In partnership with Jalbert Productions, he also directed a series of videos for the Committee’s Environmental Department featuring Bill Nye the Science Guy.

In 2009 he helped launch the Idaho Writers Guild, a non-profit organization for local and regional writers, and in 2010 he and partner, Jim Lane, founded Writers, Ink., offering freelance writing services to a variety of corporate and business clients including Idaho Power and the Idaho National Laboratory.

He is the Founder of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, having produced the initial six seasons while serving as Artistic Director for three of them.  He was named President of their first Board of Trustees, where he served through the tenth season while continuing to act with the company.  He is honored to currently serve on the Festival’s Advisory Board.  He is also member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actor’s Equity Association with extensive credentials over more than 30 years. 

In addition to writing locally for Boise and McCall magazines for more than a decade, he is the author of With Our Good Will – 30 Years of Shakespeare In Idaho, a full-color coffee table book on the history of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival (Caxton Press, 2006).