Stephen Herek
Born: 10th November 1958
Where: San Antonio, Texas, USA
The director could be credited for creating the slacker comedy genre with the 1989 hit Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
He has gone on to helm successes ranging from the all-star swashbuckler The Three Musketeers to Rock Star with Mark Wahlberg.
Herek began as a production assistant for Roger Corman's New World Pictures and earned a screen credit as assistant editor of the 1982 sci-fi opus Androids.
He made his feature directorial and screenwriting debut with Gremlins knockoff, Critters, one of the most successful independent movies of the 1980s.
He firmly raised his profile with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as two brain-dead teens who travel through time to pass a major history test.
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead followed before Herek began a long-running association with Disney Studios in 1992.
His next few features scored big at the box office - The Mighty Ducks and The Three Musketeers starring Charlie Sheen, Chris O'Donnell, Kiefer Sutherland and Oliver Platt.
Mr Holland's Opus, a story of a dedicated music teacher (Richard Dreyfuss), marked a real change of pace as a quieter, more sentimental movie.
He returned to type with his follow-up, a live-action remake of the Disney animated classic, 101 Dalmatians, which landed Glenn Close a Golden Globe nomination as Cruella DeVil.
In 2001, Mark Wahlberg starred in Rock Star - the story of the lead singer in a tribute band landing the gig of fronting the band he idolises.
The following year, he made the dismal romantic comedy Life Or Something Like It with a miscast Angelina Jolie.
Recent work includes the light comedy Man of the House with Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas Ranger in a house full of cheerleaders.
