Rankin Hickman was born and raised in Mississippi. After a couple of years at the University of Southern Mississippi, he traveled to Dallas and New York in search of any job he could find in the film industry. Eventually, he landed in New Orleans in 1998 just prior to the boom in production there that gave New Orleans the nickname, "Hollywood South." Rankin worked as a production assistant on pilots, tv movies, and commercials before moving up to production coordinator and production supervisor on features. As he gained experience, he continued to write and develop his stories while learning the pitfalls of production at nearly every budget level.Rankin is now moving ahead with an array of projects as writer/ director. He is married to the production designer, Christina E. Kim, and is a father of two.