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Stacy Peralta

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Stacy Peralta
Peralta in 2005 holding a producer credit for The 1 Second Film
Born
Stacy Douglas Peralta

(1957-10-15) October 15, 1957 (age 66)
Venice, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Film director, entrepreneur, former professional skateboarder
Known forCo-founder of Powell Peralta
Spouses
Joni Caldwell
​
​
(m. 1989; div. 1990)​
Gemma Vizor
​
(m. 2001)​
Children2, including Austin Peralta (deceased)

Stacy Douglas Peralta[1] (born October 15, 1957) is an American film director and entrepreneur. He was previously a professional skateboarder and surfer with the Zephyr Competition Team, also known as the Z-Boys, from Venice, California.[2]

Early life

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Peralta was born in Venice, California, of Mexican and Irish descent.[3][4] At age 15, he began competing with the Z-Boys, a group sponsored by the surf shop Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions along with Perry Caravello. His second sponsor was Gordon and Smith. Peralta graduated from Venice High School in 1975.

Career

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Skateboarding

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Peralta circa 1976

At the age of 19, Peralta became the highest-ranked professional skateboarder.[citation needed] Soon after, he joined forces with manufacturer George Powell to form Powell Peralta, which would grow to be one of the most successful skateboard brands of the 1980s. With the financial backing of Powell-Peralta, Peralta formed the seminal Bones Brigade, a team composed of some of the best skaters at the time, many of whom revolutionized modern skateboarding.[5][6]

Film work

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In 1984, Peralta also directed and produced the first-ever skate video, the Bones Brigade Video Show.

Peralta is also credited in the 1985 movie Real Genius, playing the commander of a fictional space vehicle delivering a deadly laser blast to an unsuspecting criminal during the film's opening scene.[7]

Peralta served as the Second Unit Director and Skating Technical Advisor in the 1989 film, Gleaming the Cube, directed by Graeme Clifford and starring Christian Slater.[8] The movie featured a number of skateboarders from the Powell-Peralta team after screenplay writer Michael Tolkein became impressed with the skaters' abilities. As Peralta stated in 1987: "[Tolkein] never realized how into skating he would become. And he really has captured an authentic feel of what skating is about."[9]

In 1992, Peralta left Powell-Peralta to direct and produce for television full-time. His love of skateboarding manifested itself in Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary film co-written with CR Stecyk III, regarding the legendary skateboard team known as the Z-Boys. The film, produced by Agi Orsi, reinforces the conviction that in the 1970s, much of the attention of the skateboarding media centered on Dogtown. Dogtown won Director's and Audience Awards for documentary at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Peralta also directed Riding Giants, a 2004 documentary of the history of modern big wave surfing and tow-in surfing. Following that, Peralta wrote the screenplay for the dramatic re-telling of the Dogtown days with Lords of Dogtown (2005). His 2008 documentary, Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008),[10] focuses on gang violence in South-Central Los Angeles. This film provides insights into the origins of the infamous Crips and Bloods street gangs, and also offers a look at the social injustice in Los Angeles in the 1950s and '60s. In 2012, Peralta produced Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, which chronicles the Powell-Peralta skateboarding team of the same name. It includes interviews with Rodney Mullen, Craig Stecyk, Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, and Peralta himself, among others.

In 2008, Peralta directed a series of television commercials for Burger King in which the Greenlandic Inuit, Transylvanians of Romania and Hmong of Thailand, known as "Whopper virgins" in the ads, were offered their first taste of a fast food hamburger and asked to compare Burger King's Whopper to McDonald's Big Mac. Peralta subsequently came under attack for what some deemed exploitation of native peoples.[11][12]

In 2003, Peralta's experience as an entrepreneur and skate video filmmaker was adapted for the video game Tony Hawk's Underground. Peralta also did cameo work for the game in which he played himself.

Divorced in the 1990s, Peralta had one son, pianist Austin Peralta, who died on November 21, 2012.[13]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1985 Real Genius Shuttle Pilot Comedy
1987 The Search for Animal Chin Director, producer Action film
1989 Ban This Director, producer Feature documentary
1989 Gleaming the Cube Second Unit Director, Skating Technical Advisor Feature Film
1996 When Disasters Strike Director TV movie
1998 America's Teenagers Growing Up on Television Director TV movie
1999 Influences: From Yesterday to Today Director TV movie
2000 The 70s: The Decade That Changed Television Director, producer TV documentary
2001 Dogtown and Z-Boys Director, writer Feature documentary
2004 Riding Giants Director, producer Feature documentary
2005 Lords of Dogtown Writer Feature film
2006 Pipeline Masters Narrator, producer Feature documentary
2008 Crips and Bloods: Made in America Director, writer, producer Feature documentary
2012 Bones Brigade: An Autobiography Director, producer Feature documentary
2022 The Yin and Yang of Gerry Lopez Director, producer Feature documentary

Video games

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Year Title Role Notes
2003 Tony Hawk's Underground Himself

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1978 Blue Peter Himself February 2nd 1978 episode.
1979 Charlie's Angels Kid on skateboard The Prince and the Angel episode
1992 Nickelodeon Wildside Show Director Nature show
1995 Mr. Show with Bob and David Title designer/director, episode 103 Sketch comedy show

References

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  1. ^ "Stacy Douglas Peralta". myheritage.com. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  2. ^ Cynthia Fuchs (2001–2012). ""You Go Blindfolded": An Interview with Stacy Peralta, Dogtown and Z-Boys". morphizm. morphizm.com. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  3. ^ Manzano, Gilberto (July 23, 2015). "12 Latinos that Made History with Skateboards". wearemitu.com. Mitú. Archived from the original on September 25, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2017.
  4. ^ "Skateboarders Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta paved the way for Latinos to thrive in action sports - ESPN". ESPN. September 29, 2009. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
  5. ^ Blair Alley (December 20, 2011). "THE 30 MOST INFLUENTIAL SKATERS OF ALL TIME: 3. Mullen". Transworld Skateboarding. Bonnier Corporation. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  6. ^ Blair Alley (December 20, 2011). "THE 30 MOST INFLUENTIAL SKATERS OF ALL TIME: 2. Hawk". Transworld Skateboarding. Bonnier Corporation. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  7. ^ "Stacy Peralta - IMDb". IMDb.
  8. ^ "Gleaming the Cube (1989)". IMDb. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  9. ^ "Gleaming the Cube". Bones Brigade Intelligence Report: 4, 7. 1987 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ Crips and Bloods: Made in America at IMDb
  11. ^ "Whopper Virgins". Cpbgroup.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  12. ^ Fitzsimmons, Caitlin (December 4, 2008). "Burger King's 'Whopper Virgins' ads: just bad taste? | Media | guardian.co.uk". The Guardian. London. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  13. ^ Meek, Tom (March 27, 2013). "Austin Peralta Died From Pneumonia Combined With Drugs and Alcohol, Says Coroner - LA Weekly". www.laweekly.com. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
  • Hayes, Andrea. "Dogtown and Z-Boys: Teaching the Documentary". Screen Education 40 (2005): 84–87. Academic Search Premier. Web. May 7, 2013.
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