24 Facts About Penelope Spheeris

1.

Penelope Spheeris was born on December 2,1946 and is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.

2.

Penelope Spheeris's Greek-immigrant father owned the Magic Empire Shows carnival and was a side-show strong man.

3.

Penelope Spheeris's father was 40 years old and her mother was 19 when they began a relationship.

4.

Penelope Spheeris is a sister of singer Jimmie Spheeris and a first cousin of musician Chris Spheeris, and Greek-French director Costa Gavras, which she says has made her consider that a genetic component exists to her vocation.

5.

Penelope Spheeris spent her first seven years traveling around the American South and American Midwest with her father's carnival.

6.

Penelope Spheeris's father was murdered in Troy, Alabama, after intervening in a racial dispute.

7.

Penelope Spheeris spent her teenaged years in Orange County, graduating from Westminster High School with a daunting 'most likely to succeed' label.

8.

Penelope Spheeris admired the teachings of George Falcon, a behavioral scientist.

9.

From his influence, Penelope Spheeris went on to study psychobiology at the University of California, Irvine, in Orange County, southeast of Los Angeles.

10.

Penelope Spheeris majored in film and has a master of fine arts degree in theater arts from UCLA.

11.

Penelope Spheeris launched her career by producing short subjects for comedian Albert Brooks, many of them being highlights in the first season of the television series Saturday Night Live.

12.

Penelope Spheeris followed up with Suburbia in 1983, produced by Roger Corman, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, this time about the Los Angeles heavy metal scene of 1988, with footage and interviews of legendary metal bands such as Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Megadeth, and Motorhead.

13.

Penelope Spheeris later returned to the streets of Los Angeles and the punk rock scene in 1998 for the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part III.

14.

Penelope Spheeris was offered the chance to direct This is Spinal Tap, but declined.

15.

Penelope Spheeris directed the Wayne's World music video work for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", which earned a Grammy Award nomination.

16.

Penelope Spheeris had difficulty working with Myers, while acknowledging him as "profoundly talented," and in an Entertainment Weekly article stated she believes Myers dissuaded Paramount Pictures from hiring her for the sequel.

17.

The moving image collection of Penelope Spheeris is held at the Academy Film Archive.

18.

The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Penelope Spheeris' films, including Bath, Hats Off To Hollywood, and Shit.

19.

Penelope Spheeris has a daughter, director Anna Penelope Spheeris Fox, born in 1969.

20.

Since September 9,1998, Penelope Spheeris has been in a relationship with a man known as Sin, whom she met while filming the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part III.

21.

Penelope Spheeris has described him as the love of her life.

22.

Penelope Spheeris appeared on WTF with Marc Maron on June 29,2015.

23.

Penelope Spheeris appeared on Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor podcast on October 18,2016.

24.

Penelope Spheeris work has received recognition from the Directors Guild of America, The Recording Academy, Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the Chicago International Film Festival, the Chicago Underground Film Festival, the Deep Ellum Film Festival, the LA Femme International Film Festival, the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, the Los Angeles Silver Lake Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Temecula Valley International Film Festival.