Jack Sholder

Jack was born in Philadelphia, where he studied to become a professional trumpet player. While still in high school, he performed under such conductors as Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy. 

He graduated from Antioch College with a degree in English literature, having studied along the way at Drexel Institute of Technology, the University of Edinburgh and L'Université de Besançon.

After writing and directing several award winning short films while working as an editor–he won an Emmy for his editing work on 3-2-1 Contact–Jack directed his first feature in 1982 for New Line Cinema, Alone In The Dark, with Martin Landau, Jack Palance and Donald Pleasance. He then wrote Where Are The Children starring Jill Clayburgh for Ray Stark and Columbia, and directed Nightmare On Elm Street II.

His next feature, The Hidden, won, among many other prizes, the Grand Prix at the Avoriaz Film Festival. Premiere Magazine called it "one of the 10 most underrated films of the '80s."  This was followed by Renegades with Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips for Universal and By Dawn's Early Light for HBO with Martin Landau, James Earl Jones, Rip Torn, Rebecca de Mornay, and Powers Boothe. 

Jack has directed four movies for the Fox Network: 12:01 with Jonathan Silverman, Martin Landau and Helen Slater; Dark Reflection; Generation X, based on the Marvel comic book; and Runaway Car.  He directed Hands That See with Courtney Cox for Showtime.  In 1998 he wrote and directed Evil Never Dies for Artisan Entertainment and, in 2000, completed Arachnid for Filmax (Barcelona) and Lion's Gate.

In 2002, Jack directed Beeper, a thriller starring Harvey Keitel and Joey Lauren Adams that was shot in India.  And in 2003 he directed Twelve Days of Terror for Fox Television Studios, a fictionalized account of an infamous series of shark attacks that took place in New Jersey in 1916.

In addition, Jack has directed episodes of Vietnam War Stories, Gabriel's Fire, Pensacola, Tales From The Crypt  and Tremors, as well as the pilot for Richard Donner's The Omen for NBC.

In 2004, Jack was appointed professor in the Communications Department at Western Carolina University where he is director of the Motion Picture and Television Production program.  He is currently living in Asheville, N.C.