Cone was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in South Carolina. He moved to Chicago in 2004 and, in his words, taught himself to make movies “by making movies.”

In 2006, Cone wrote, produced, and directed his first short film Church Story with actors Isabel Liss, Bill McGough, and Arian Moayed. In 2007, Cone followed with the short film Young Wives. His medium-length film, a metaphysical drama called The Christians, was completed in 2008 and featured performances by J. Kingsford Goode, Bill McGough, Arian Moayed, Sadie Rogers, Laurel Schroeder, Krissy Shields, and Robert Belushi, oldest son of actor Jim Belushi.

Cone’s next feature film, the full-length In Memoriam, released in 2011, follows a group of college students reenacting the last hours of two dead peers who fell to their deaths attempting to make love. In Memoriam was praised by film critic Roger Ebert as “a touching film.” Cone later reflected on the effect Ebert’s review had, writing:

Cone’s third theatrical film, the coming-of-age drama The Wise Kids, also released in 2011, was a critical success. It also garnered praise from Roger Ebert, Variety’s Robert Koehler, and Stephen Holden of The New York Times. The film was a Critics’ Pick for The New York Times and won the Grand Jury Prizes for U.S. Feature and Best Screenplay at Outfest. It was subsequently released on cable/VOD and DVD by Wolfe Video.

In 2013, Cone released his fourth theatrical film Black Box. While not as widely seen as The Wise Kids due to an initial lack of distribution, the film garnered praise from Newcity’s Ray Pride and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, who gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars and called it “a worthy follow-up to Cone’s previous film.” Black Box was later acquired by Devolver Digital Films for a late 2014 cable/VOD release.

Cone completed two unreleased features in 2014, The Mystery of Life and This Afternoon, and in 2015 completed the coming-of-age drama Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party. His latest film, Princess Cyd, premiered at the Maryland Film Festival on May 4, 2017. In an interview with Silver Screen Beat, Cone revealed that his next film, an untitled Southern family drama, will begin shooting in 2018.