John Paizs is a director, writer and actor from Winnipeg, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. In 1985 his much-celebrated independent comedy Crime Wave was presented at the Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...

. He was the male lead and also wrote and directed the film. He worked on several TV series, but has not made another feature film until 1999's Top of the Food Chain

Top of the Food Chain

Top of the Food Chain is a 1999 Canadian film directed by John Paizs, starring Campbell Scott, Fiona Loewi, and Tom Everett Scott. It was released on video in the US under the title Invasion! It is a parody of alien invasion movies, where mysterious carnivorous beings invade a small town....

, a stylish, low-budget sendup of Golden Age '50s science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 movies. John is currently the Director in Residence at the Canadian Film Centre.

Filmography (Director)

• Marker (2005)
• Top of the Food Chain
  Top of the Food Chain
  Top of the Food Chain is a 1999 Canadian film directed by John Paizs, starring Campbell Scott, Fiona Loewi, and Tom Everett Scott. It was released on video in the US under the title Invasion! It is a parody of alien invasion movies, where mysterious carnivorous beings invade a small town....
  
  (1999
  1999 in film
  The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep...
  
  )
• Once A Thief
  Once a Thief (TV series)
  Once a Thief was a 1997 Canadian television show inspired by the 1996 film of the same name.-Premise:...
  
  (1997) TV series
• The Adventures of Shirley Holmes
  The Adventures of Shirley Holmes
  The Adventures of Shirley Holmes is a Canadian mystery TV series that originally aired from 1996 to 1999. The show was created by Ellis Iddon and Phil Meagher who had produced a successful series of books with Harper Collins, teaming up with Credo and Forefront to develop the TV series...
  
  (1996) TV series
• Maniac Mansion
  Maniac Mansion (TV Series)
  Maniac Mansion is a Canadian science fiction/family sitcom very loosely based on the LucasArts video game of the same name.The series, filmed entirely in Toronto, Ontario, was produced by Atlantis Films for The Family Channel in the United States and YTV in Canada, and aired for three complete...
  
  (1990) TV series
• The Kids in the Hall
  The Kids in the Hall
  The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...
  
  (1988) TV series
• Crime Wave
  Crime Wave (1985 film)
  Crime Wave is a 1985 film made by Winnipeg-based filmmaker John Paizs shot between 1984 and 1986. The film is an homage to late 1940s-early 1950s "color crime pictures". Paizs plays Steven Penny, a struggling screenwriter who lives above the garage of a suburban family, and begins typing each...
  
  (1985
  1985 in film
  -Events:* 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.* The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.* Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie...
  
  )
• International Style, The (1983)
• Oak, Ivy, and Other Dead Elms (1982)
• Springtime in Greenland (1981)
• The Obsession of Billy Botski (1980)

External links