John Carpenter grew up as the son of a music professor in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he began making homemade fantasy movies at the age of 8. While attending the University of Southern California, he made over 12 short films including a collaboration on The Resurrection of Broncho Billy which won an Academy Award for Best Action Short. After graduating, he produced, directed and scored the sci-fi cult classic Dark Star. Carpenter broke through to the mainstream with Halloween, followed by such successful films as The Fog, Escape from New York, two sequels to Halloween,Village of the Damned, Vampires, Escape from L.A., Memoirs of an Invisible Man, In the Mouth of Madness, Body Bags, They Live, Prince of Darkness and Big Trouble in Little China. Renowned in the film industry for his multiple roles as writer, actor, composer, producer and director, Carpenter's most recent film, Ghosts of Mars, was released in 2001.