Next Gen 2010: Hollywood's Young Guns

In a world that is brutally difficult to monetize, Cooperstein might just be the guy to have a breakthrough. With his new Maker Studios, a startup that allows YouTube stars to share production and promotion, the UCLA grad is getting 140 million monthly views — something Cooperstein’s former boss at Current TV, Al Gore, would have been proud of. “We’re delivering numbers equivalent to cable,” says Cooperstein, a Santa Cruz, Calif., native who swims laps in his free time. But he hasn’t had much idle time lately: Cooperstein has also been instrumental to engineering Current’s innovative VC2 (viewer-created content) division. “And that’s something that can’t be ignored.”