Arshay Cooper is a modern-day Renaissance man. He’s a trailblazing rower with two Golden Oar awards for his contributions to the sport. At Manley High School, he was a part of the country's first All-Black high school rowing team. As a French-trained chef, he has cooked for celebrities worldwide.

Cooper is also the author of the best-selling memoir A Most Beautiful Thing and starred in the critically acclaimed film A Most Beautiful Thing, narrated by Common and produced by Grant Hill, Dwyane Wade, and 9th Wonder about his time as a rower. A philanthropist, Cooper is also the co-founder of the A Most Beautiful Thing Inclusion Fund, a national award-winning nonprofit dedicated to introducing thousands of under-resourced youth to the sport of rowing worldwide.

For his latest endeavor, Cooper is set to release his new book LET ME BE REAL WITH YOU: Inspiring Lessons on Living a Life of Service, which HarperOne will publish on October 14, 2025. 

Growing up in Chicago, Cooper said that his options were limited as his neighborhood was surrounded by gang violence and sparse opportunities. He shared that many of his friends got caught up in the cycle of institutional barriers set up against Black people in the inner-city, but rowing saved his life.

“I grew up on the west side of Chicago, where you see a lot of violence. I've lost friends, and if you're not great at sports, then you're kind of just on your own. I didn’t make any sports team, so there was nothing for me,” Copper told BET. “Then I walked into a lunchroom one day, and I saw a white boat. I was like, ‘What the hell is this?’  I had never seen anything like this before.”

“This white lady was asked if I wanted to join the crew. They were showing the Olympic Games in the lunchroom. I looked at the screen and I said to myself, ‘No one looks like me on that screen. I ain't doing that.” The next day, they were giving free pizza to anyone who joined the team. I was like, ‘I'll do it for the pizza,” he said with a laugh.

Although he joined the high school rowing team, Cooper had limited exposure to the water and was unable to swim. After getting comfortable in the water, he quickly fell in love with the sport. He noted how being on the water in the rowing boat was a “meditative experience,” and it was just what he needed at the time in his life.

“They took me out to the water in a life jacket and I was terrified the whole time,” he recalled. “The cool thing about the program was that it was rowing, swimming, and youth entrepreneurship. Every week, we went to the local swim program, and we learned how to swim. After passing the swim test, we were able to race. We got to enjoy the beach for the first time.”

Not only did Cooper learn a new sport, but he also traveled outside of Chicago for the first time to compete in races. Becoming a rower allowed him to see how vast the world is and opened up a new world of possibilities.

“We went to different communities because there were never competitions in our city or the state, because it's a national sport,” Cooper said. “Being able to travel was a huge part of being on the team.”

Due to his hectic schedule, Cooper doesn’t get to row as much as he would like to, and he's still trying to get Common to go out on the water with him.

“I don't row as much as I used to, but I usually go out there and row with the kids in my program. I can’t get out there as much because my schedule is crazy. You gotta drive to the water, you gotta put it out there, you gotta put your oars in, so it's a process,” he shared. “That’s why people show up at 5 am, because it takes a little bit of time to get around. “

“When he asked Common to go rowing with me, he told me, “Man, the water is beautiful and it's meditative, but I don’t do the water,” he laughed.

Another barrier to entry into rowing is the expensive cost of equipment, Cooper said. Because of the boat and accompanying equipment, rowing has historically been associated with the wealthy, and it is Cooper’s mission to change that reality.

“The cost of a boat is the same as a car. There is water insurance and transportation. The amount of money it costs to be in this sport it's a reason why it's such an elite sport, affluent, a first-class sport,” he said.

Rowing also helped Cooper see all the opportunities that lay before him, even while growing up in Chicago. That exposure helped him to discover his love of cooking, which took him all over the world. Eventually, he became a personal chef for some of the biggest stars of the WWE.

“After high school, I went to Le Cordon Bleu and became a chef. I learned French cooking and the American classics because that’s where the money was,” Cooper said. “One of my friends told me about a job with WWE, and I got the job. It was a fantastic experience cooking for John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, and Triple H. 

“I was traveling with them, and they ate a lot of protein, meat on top of meat, and they were huge. It was a blessing. It was a great life,” he added. “It just shows that dreams come true if you work hard. That's some of the things I learned from rowing that made me successful in the kitchen.”

Let Me Be Real With You, Cooper’s second book, was inspired by an interaction he had as a guest speaker for an elementary school. Although he hesitated to take the engagement, it turned out to be a game-changer for him.

“I was speaking all over the world, and when you become successful, there will be times when you forget the world is on fire while you're comfortable. “I was asked to speak at a school and didn’t want to do it. When I got there, it reminded me of where I grew up,” Cooper recalled. “I asked the audience if anyone had a dream. One of the kids said his dream was to eat at Chipotle, and everyone started laughing. I remember saying to one of the teachers, ‘Here's $20. We have to get him Chipotle because if you can eliminate a small dream, there's room for bigger dreams.”

“The book is about contributing to the goodness of the world without sacrificing our own self-care. Teachers, parents, nurses, and doctors are drowning in every area of their lives, and people don’t talk about it. So the book helps us to connect, to be vulnerable, without being judged,” he continued. “What I've learned in the process of starting this foundation and introducing people to rowing all over the world is that I made it my mission to save every child I could, but I forgot the most important one, the child within me.”

Utilizing the wellness tenets from the book, Cooper hopes to apply everything he has learned in rowing and as a chef to help others live their lives at optimal levels.

“If we could combat these stressors with financial wellness, mental wellness, physical wellness, social wellness, having good friends, and good relationships, we would all thrive, “he said. 

There’s environmental wellness, being around water and grass, vocational wellness, when we can give back, intellectual wellness, reading knowledge is power, and then spiritual wellness,” Cooper went on. “If we introduce all these elements of wellness in our lives, we will see the world differently.”