Directory Profile

Sam Rocco is a director and writer based in Los Angeles, CA. He spent his childhood in New Jersey watching Spielberg and Clive Barker movies while pretending to be a Ninja Turtle. Influenced as much by Nightbreed as he was by Jurassic Park, Rocco has cultivated a unique style that stands out in a depressed-child-of-the-90s type of way. Rocco has a totally normal obsession with comics, horror, and action movies, and is determined to one day make a buddy-cop film that may or may not involve dinosaurs.

Rocco spent five years in the United States Navy as an air traffic controller, writing weird vampire stories at night in the control tower while making sure no planes blew up. He has a BFA in screenwriting from Arizona State University and an MFA in Film Production from USC. Rocco’s short films have screened all over the world, he has written six feature screenplays, directed a number music videos, spent a year as the in-house filmmaker for Yamaha Music, and is a directing professor at USC.