Wesley Earl Craven

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Author, film maker, screen writer Wes Craven is a former humanities professor turned master of the macabre, a prolific and wildly successful film director and screenwriter for almost thirty years. His credits include A Nightmare on Elm Street, many episodes of Twilight Zone, The People Under the Stairs, Screams 1, 2 and 3 and the classic Last House on the Left.

In a new departure, he completed his first non-genre film, starring Meryl Streep and Aidan Quinn, about a violin teacher in Spanish Harlem. Craven holds a master's degree in writing and philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

"I wasn't allowed to see movies when I was a child. It was against the religion I was raised in..."
~Wes Craven

Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a working class family. While in school, he wrote and edited his school’s newspaper, including a regular comedy column. He attended Wheaton College in Illinois where he earned his BA in English. Offered a full scholarship, he continued at the John Hopkins Graduate Writing Seminars, studying under the Baltimore poet/scholar Eliot Coleman. In one year, Craven earned a Masters in writing and philosophy.

Craven taught Humanities at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, then at Clarkson College in Potsdam, New York. While at Clarkson College, Craven bought a 16mm camera and began making small films. Within a year, he quit his teaching post and headed for New York, determined to break into films.

Craven began as a messenger, worked his way up through the editing room and within a year and a half was given the chance to write, direct and edit his first feature film, The Last House on the Left. Since then, Craven has directed numerous feature films, movies of the week and episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Horror Filmography

*Wrote Characters

Click the image to go to Wes Craven's Official site.

"Horror films don't create fear. They release it."
~ Wes Craven