Elliot Kotek

Elliot Kotek

Co-Founder and Content Chief
Not Impossible

Elliot is a recognizable figure in creating projects based in the sphere of science and technology, and ensuring these are not only accessible, but that they serve to inspire.

As co-founder and content chief of Not Impossible, founding editor-in-chief of Not Impossible Now and former executive director of The Not Impossible Foundation, Elliot and his team utilized crowd-sourcing to crowd-solve healthcare issues by providing low-cost and DIY tech to people in need all over the world.  Not Impossible projects Elliot produced include - Project Daniel - 3D Printing Prosthetic Limbs for Children of War Torn Sudan; The Brainwriter - a prototype EEG sensor and eye-tracking device that enables those with ALS and other locked-in syndromes to create and communicate using just brainwaves and eye movements; and Don's Voice - a freely downloadable interface software that enables those with locked-in syndromes like Motor Neurone Disease to spell and "speak" independently.

A former M&A/Biotech Venture Capital attorney in Australia and New York, Kotek holds a Law Degree, a BSc in Pharmacology & Toxicology, studied at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York and completed UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting. He’s the founder and editor-in-chief of Beyond Cinema magazine, the former editor-in-chief of both Moving Pictures and Celebs.com, delivers a fortnightly report on ABC Radio Australia to an est. 1 million listeners, and has hosted events for Film Independent, the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America and film festivals globally. He has interviewed everyone from Elmo to Elon Musk and 1,000 other global thought leaders who include the winners of more than 100 Oscars and, a Noble Peace Prize.

Elliot founded and leads the content communications company The Nation of Artists, through which he is currently executive producing two series on the intersection between humanity and technology, as well as producing two feature documentaries and associated action campaigns around social issues such as education and civil rights. The feature documentary “140," which Kotek co-produced, is the first ever user-generated film made utilizing social-media. ”Little Larry,” which Elliot wrote, received a Directors Guild of Canada nomination, "Raise My Hands" - a tribute to Nelson Mandela - has been shown to audiences on multiple continents and has featured in dozens of festivals, and the multiple award-winning documentary “Queen Mimi” with Marie Haist and "Hangover" actor Zach Galifianakis hits theaters in Spring 2016.

Elliot's honors include 3 Cannes Lion Awards (including the Titanium Lion), 4 One Show Awards, 3 Maggie Awards, 2 AICP Awards for Cause Marketing, 5 Telly Awards, 2 Clios, the SxSW Innovation Award (and back-to-back nominations in 2015 and 2016), TEDMED's The Hive, the Nominet Trust 100, the No Barriers Summit Award, NYU Craft Award, award nominations from the Design Museum, and project archiving in the permanent collection at MoMA. His work has been publicized in Popular Mechanics, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, The Daily Beast, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent and hundreds of other outlets and he has been a keynote or featured speaker at SxSW, MakerFaire, NxNE, Social Innovation Summit, Nexus Global Summit at the United Nations, Nexus US Summit at the White House and US Institute for Peace, SIGGRAPH, Discovery Education & Siemens Innovation Summit, TEDxYouth, the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation and many other premier events.

Elliot is the recipient of the 2016 Kellogg School of Management's KIN Innovation Fellowship and was recognized by Australia's Monash University as its 2015 Distinguished Alumni of the Year for the Faculty of Science.