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Penelope SpheerisAmerican director, producer and screenwriter
Date of Birth: 02.12.1945
Country:  USA |
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Penelope Spheeris Biography
Penelope Spheeris is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. She gained fame as a talented documentary filmmaker, most notably for her trilogy titled 'The Decline of Western Civilization' (1981-1998). Spheeris also directs fictional films, with 'Wayne's World' being her highest-grossing movie.
Early Life and Family
Penelope Spheeris was born on December 2, 1945, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father was a Greek immigrant who owned a circus show called 'Magic Empire Shows' and performed as a strongman. Her mother worked as a ticket seller for the traveling circus. Penelope's younger brother, Jimmie Spheeris, was a well-known singer-songwriter in the 1970s. She also has a cousin, Chris Spheeris, who is a musician and composer, and another cousin, Costa Gavras, a Greek-French director and screenwriter.
During the first seven years of her life, Penelope traveled around the American South and Midwest with her father's circus. After completing high school, she studied cinema and received a master's degree in theater arts from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Career
Spheeris began her career by writing plots for comedian Albert Brooks, and many of her creations were featured in the first season of the television series 'Saturday Night Live.' Her first major work was 'The Decline of Western Civilization,' a documentary film about the punk rock scene in Los Angeles. She worked on this project from 1979 to 1980, serving as both the director and producer. In 1988, she released the sequel, 'The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years,' which focused on the local heavy metal movement. Legendary bands of that time, such as Kiss, Aerosmith, Megadeth, Motörhead, and Ozzy Osbourne, participated in the film. In 1998, Spheeris returned to the Los Angeles punk scene with the documentary 'The Decline of Western Civilization Part III.'
In 1984, Spheeris was offered the opportunity to direct the pseudo-documentary parody 'This Is Spinal Tap' about a fictional British rock band losing popularity. However, she declined, considering it inappropriate to mock heavy metal. From 1988 to 1997, she worked as a writer for the sitcom 'Roseanne.' In the 1990s, she directed the comedy 'Wayne's World,' based on Mike Myers' parodies from 'Saturday Night Live.' The film grossed $121 million, becoming a box office hit, and the music video featuring Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' received a Grammy nomination. Despite considering Myers talented, Spheeris had difficulties working with him, and when the sequel 'Wayne's World 2' was made in 1993, she believed that Myers influenced Paramount Pictures to hire a different director.
In 1996, she directed 'We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n Roll,' a documentary about the metal festival 'Ozzfest,' named after one of Black Sabbath's albums. Among Spheeris' other films are comedies such as 'The Beverly Hillbillies' (1993), 'The Little Rascals' (1994), 'Black Sheep' (1996), 'Senseless' (1998), and 'The Kid & I' (2005). In 2011, her new comedy 'Balls to the Wall' was released.
