Joe Dante is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art. After a stint as a film reviewer, he began his filmmaking apprenticeship in 1974 as trailer editor for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his directorial debut in 1976 with Hollywood Boulevard (co-directed with Allan Arkush), a thinly disguised spoof of New World exploitation pictures, shot in ten days for $60,000. In 1977 Dante made his solo debut as a film director with Piranha, which went on to become one of the company's biggest hits and was distributed throughout the rest of the world by United Artists. During his tenure at New World, Dante edited Ron Howard's directorial debut Grand Theft Auto and co-wrote the original story for Rock n Roll High School. For Avco-Embassy Dante next directed the highly praised werewolf thriller The Howling (1981), followed by the It's a Good Life segment of the episodic Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). Having worked with Steven Spielberg on Twilight Zone, Dante was chosen to helm one of the first Amblin Productions for Warner Bros. Gremlins (1984) became a runaway hit and grossed more than $200 million worldwide. Dante followed up with Explorers for Paramount, a sci-fi fantasy about three kids who build their own spaceship, and then Innerspace (1987) for Guber/Peters, Amblin and Warner Bros., an action comedy in which miniaturized test pilot Dennis Quaid is injected into the body of supermarket clerk Martin Short. Tom Hanks starred in Dante's next film for Imagine/Universal, The 'Burbs (1989), which was followed by Gremlins 2: The New Batch for Warner Bros. in 1990. Matinee featuring John Goodman as a huckster showman premiering his new horror film during the Cuban Missile Crisis, was a production of Dante and partner Mike Finnell's Renfield Productions for Universal in 1993. Dreamworks/Universal's Small Soldiers was released in 1998, followed in 2003 by Warner Bros. Looney Tunes: Back in Action featuring one of Dante's favorite actors, Bugs Bunny. Dante's Homecoming, an episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series, debuted in December 2005 to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and was named to numerous "Top 10" critics lists. The Sitges and Brussels International Film Festivals both honored Homecoming with Special Jury Recognition Awards, and the New Yorker called it the best political film of 2005. More recent work includes The Screwfly Solution, also an episode of Masters of Horror, and the Halloween 2007 episode of CSI: New York. His new 3D thriller, The Hole, for Bold Films recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it garnered the first-ever award for Best 3D Feature. Dante also produces the critically-acclaimed webisode/mobile phone series, Trailers from Hell. Along the way Dante contributed several comedy segments to the multi-part Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) spoof produced by John Landis, and directed various episodes of the tv series Amazing Stories, Twilight Zone, Police Squad!, Night Visions and Picture Windows. He also directed the network pilots for Caleb Carr's The Osiris Chronicles (1995) and the NBC series Eerie, Indiana, on which he was creative consultant throughout its run. Dante received Cable Ace nominations for his direction of Showtime's Runaway Daughters (1994) and HBO's The Second Civil War (1997).

1. Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Himself 2. Trailers from Hell Volume 2 (2011) - Himself 3. Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) - Himself 4. The Bloodiest Show on Earth: Making Vampire Circus (2010) - Himself 5. The Hole (2009) - Regizor 6. Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film (2009) - Himself 7. Trailers from Hell (2008) - Himself 8. Famous Monster: Forrest J Ackerman (2007) - Himself 9. Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy (2005) - Himself 10. The Perfect Scary Movie (2005) - Himself 11. "Masters of Horror" (2005) - (2 episodes, 2005-2006) 12. "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments" (2004) - Himself (unknown episodes) 13. Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) - Regizor 14. Il silenzio dei prosciutti (1994) - Dying Man 15. The Vampire Interviews (1994) - Himself 16. Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) - Jailer 17. Sleepwalkers (1992) - Lab Assistant 18. "Eerie, Indiana" (1991) - (5 episodes, 1991-1992) 19. The 'burbs (1989) - Regizor 20. "Amazing Stories" (1985) - (2 episodes, 1986) 21. Gremlins (1984) - Regizor 22. Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) - (segment 3) 23. The Howling (1981) - Regizor 24. Piranha (1978) - Regizor 25. Piranha (1978) - Scuba Diver #2 (uncredited)

1. Former Roger Corman protégé. Also helped by Steven Spielberg.

2. Directors he has cited as his principal influences include Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin, James Whale, Roger Corman, and Jean Cocteau.

3. Was interested in directing Batman (1989).

4. Was scheduled to direct a Jaws (1975) parody (under the National Lampoon banner) in the early 1980s called "Jaws 3 People 0". Universal Pictures dropped this concept in favor of a "straight" film (which became the critical and financial flop Jaws 3-D (1983)).

5. Was one of the directors considered for Jurassic Park (1993).

6. His favorite films are To Be or Not to Be (1942), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Touch of Evil (1958), C'era una volta il West (1968), and The Night of the Hunter (1955).