Penelope Spheeris Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Penelope Spheeris
Spheeris in 2013
Born	(1945-12-02) December 2, 1945 (age 79) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Occupation	Film director film producer screenwriter
Years active	1968–present
Children	Anna Fox
Relatives	Jimmie Spheeris (brother) Chris Spheeris (cousin) Costa-Gavras (cousin)

Penelope Spheeris (born December 2, 1945) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. She is famous for directing both documentaries and regular movies.

Her best-known works include a documentary series called The Decline of Western Civilization. This series explores the music and culture of Los Angeles. She also directed the hit comedy movie Wayne's World, which was her most successful film.

Early Life and Education
Career in Filmmaking
- Early Career and Documentaries
- Hollywood Movies
Personal Life
Awards and Recognition
Filmography
See also

Early Life and Education

Penelope Spheeris was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father was a Greek immigrant who owned a traveling carnival, and her mother was of Irish heritage. For her first seven years, Penelope traveled with her family's carnival across the southern and midwestern United States.

Her father died tragically when she was young. After his death, Penelope, her mother, and her three siblings moved to California. They often lived in trailer parks. She spent her teenage years in Orange County and graduated from Westminster High School.

Spheeris worked hard as a waitress to pay for her education. She studied art and then psychobiology, which is the study of how the brain affects behavior. Later, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in theater arts from the UCLA film school.

Career in Filmmaking

Early Career and Documentaries

While studying at UCLA, Spheeris began working in the film industry. She helped produce short films for the TV show Saturday Night Live.

Her first major movie was the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization (1981). It was about the punk rock music scene in Los Angeles. She later made two more films in this series. The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988) focused on the heavy metal scene. It featured famous bands like Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, and Megadeth. The third film, The Decline of Western Civilization Part III (1998), returned to the punk scene.

Hollywood Movies

Spheeris editing her film Dudes in 1986

In the 1990s, Spheeris directed many popular comedy movies. Her biggest hit was Wayne's World (1992), based on a sketch from Saturday Night Live. The movie was a huge success, earning over $183 million. She also directed the music video for Queen's song "Bohemian Rhapsody" that was featured in the movie.

Spheeris and the star of Wayne's World, Mike Myers, had some disagreements while making the film. Because of this, she did not direct the sequel, Wayne's World 2.

Her other movies from this time include:

The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
The Little Rascals (1994)
Black Sheep (1996), starring Chris Farley and David Spade

In 1996, she directed another music documentary called We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n Roll. It was about the Ozzfest music festival and was produced by Sharon Osbourne.

The moving image collection of Penelope Spheeris is kept at the Academy Film Archive, which has preserved several of her films.

Personal Life

Spheeris in 1984

Spheeris has a daughter named Anna. Since 1998, she has been in a relationship with a man named Sin, whom she met while filming The Decline of Western Civilization Part III.

Awards and Recognition

Spheeris has won many awards for her work throughout her career.

1983: Won the Silver Hugo for Best First Feature Film at the Chicago International Film Festival for Suburbia.
1998: Won the Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival for The Decline of Western Civilization Part III.
2001: Won the Pioneer Filmmaker award at the Deep Ellum Film Festival.
2003: Won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Temecula Valley International Film Festival.
2005: Won the Maverick Award at the LA Femme International Film Festival.

Filmography

Film

Feature films

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes
Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer	Notes
1969	Uncle Tom's Fairy Tales	Yes	Yes	No	Student film
1972	I Don't Know	Yes	No	No	Short film
1979	Real Life	No	Yes	No
1984	Suburbia	Yes	No	Yes
1985	The Boys Next Door	Yes	No	No
1986	Hollywood ... Squad	Yes	No	No
1987	Dudes	Yes	No	No
1987	Summer Camp Nightmare	No	No	Yes
1992	Wayne's World	Yes	No	No
1993	The Beverly Hillbillies	Yes	Yes	No
1994	The Little Rascals	Yes	No	Yes
1996	Black Sheep	Yes	No	No
1998	Senseless	Yes	No	No
2005	The Kid & I	Yes	Yes	No
2011	... to the Wall	Yes	No	No

Documentary

Year	Title	Credited as
Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer
1981	The Decline of Western Civilization	Yes	Yes	Yes
1988	The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years	Yes	No	No
1990	Thunder and Mud	Yes	No	No
1990	Banned in the U.S.A.	Yes	No	No
1998	The Decline of Western Civilization Part III	Yes	No	No
1999	Hollywierd (unreleased)	Yes	No	No
2001	We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n Roll	Yes	No	No

Television

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes
Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer	Notes
1975-1976	Saturday Night LIVE!	No	Yes	No	9 episodes
1989-1990	Roseanne	No	No	Yes	24 episodes (story editor) Episode: "Fender Bender" (writer)
1993	Danger Theatre	Yes	Yes	Yes	3 episodes (director) 7 episodes (executive producer) 5 episodes (writer)
2004	Cracking Up	Yes	No	No	Episode: "Prom Night"

TV movies

Year	Title	Notes
1991	Prison Stories: Women on the Inside	Segment "3"
	Visitors from the Unknown: UFO Abductions
	UFO Abductions: A Global Phenomenon
1998	Applewood 911
2000	Dear Doughboy
2003	The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron
2011	Five	Segment "Cheyanne"
2012	The Real St. Nick

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist
1987	"Wake Up Dead"	Megadeth
1988	"I Did It for Love"	Night Ranger
1989	"No More Mr. Nice Guy"	Megadeth
1992	"Bohemian Rhapsody" (Wayne's World Version)	Queen

Penelope Spheeris facts for kids

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