Allan Arkush

Allan Arkush (born April 30, 1948) is an American director and producer of films, television and videos. He is a regular collaborator with Joe Dante.

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Arkush grew up in Fort Lee, New Jersey.^[1] He graduated in 1966 from Fort Lee High School. His experiences there served as the inspiration for the film Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979). He attended New York University Film School from 1967 to 1970. Septuagenarian Substitute Ball, his senior film, starring John Ford Noonan, won third prize at the National Student Film Festival-1970. His teacher and faculty adviser was Martin Scorsese "whose knowledge and passion changed my life". While at NYU, he worked at The Fillmore East as an usher, stage crew member and in the psychedelic light show "Joe's Lights", performing with artists including The Who, Grateful Dead, Santana, Allman Bros, Miles Davis, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Virgil Fox and Fleetwood Mac in New York City and London.

He returned to New York City in 1973 where he drove a taxi. He moved to Los Angeles on October 4, 1973.

Arkush got his start in the film industry working (with the assistance of Jon Davison and Jonathan Kaplan) in the trailer department for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, where he met Dante. They cut trailers and TV spots for Death Race 2000, Crazy Mama, Amarcord, TNT Jackson, Small Change, Eat My Dust and at least 100 others. He co-directed Corman-produced films Hollywood Boulevard,^[2] Deathsport, was second-unit director on Grand Theft Auto for Ron Howard, and directed Rock 'n' Roll High School, starring The Ramones.^[3] He later directed the comedy Get Crazy.^[4]

He directed several TV series, including Fame and St. Elsewhere. He directed 12 episodes of Moonlighting and received an Emmy nomination for "I Am Curious ... Maddie," the series's highest-rated episode. He directed 15 TV pilots and sold 10. The most successful was Crossing Jordan (director and executive producer), which lasted 117 episodes. His TV work includes The Temptations, for which he received nominations for an Emmy Award and DGA, Ally McBeal (the "Cro-Magnon," "dancing baby" episode,^[5] which landed another Emmy nomination),^[6] Shake, Rattle and Rock!^[7] and Elvis Meets Nixon.^[8]

Arkush also directed Young at Heart. He was the director and executive producer of the TV series Heroes, directing 11 episodes, including "Second Coming", which won the Emmy for best special effects. Other highlights include Nashville and Hellcats, which he directed and acted as the executive producer for the pilot series. His most recent work is A Series of Unfortunate Events for which he received a DGA nomination^[9] and Another Life, both for Netflix.

Arkush contributes commentary to the web series Trailers from Hell where he has contributed over 100 film culture critical shorts, and has a Video Column- "The Last Reel". He is a member of the DGA Mentor Program, and has been teaching the "Narrative Workshop & Analysis" 1st year Class at the American Film Institute since 2019.

He is married to Joanne Palace Arkush, and they have two daughters: Allison and Jacqueline.

• Allan Arkush at IMDb