Randal Kleiser

Director / Author

Randal Kleiser has been an internationally known film director since the release of his first feature the 1978 musical romantic-comedy, “Grease.”

He was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and attended the University of Southern California. As a freshman, he
appeared in George Lucas' student film “Freiheit”. (He also
lived in the house that Lucas was renting at the time.)

His career began when his award-winning USC Master’s Thesis “Peege” was seen by executives at Universal who signed him to begin directing for television. In December of 2007, “Peege” was selected as one of 25 films to be added to the National Registry of Congress.

He directed several television movies in the mid-1970s, including “Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway” (1975) and “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” (1975), which starred John Travolta. Kleiser was tapped to direct his first feature film, the 1978 film “Grease,” in large part because of Travolta's recommendation based on their work together on “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.”

Kleiser’s other directing credits include “The Blue Lagoon,” “Summer Lovers,” “Flight of the Navigator,” “White Fang,” “Honey I Blew up the Kid,” “Getting It Right,” “Lovewrecked,” “It’s My Party” and the critically acclaimed play “The Penis Chronicles.”

Working with Paramount and Intel Studios, he directed the Lumiere Award-winning project "Grease AR"; an augmented reality experience using 20 dancers captured volumetrically.

He taught a graduate workshop at USC and Masters Directing Classes for European students at film festivals in Deuville and Sarlat, and Malaga. He serves as a judge on the Student Awards for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and, as chairman of the Academic Subcommittee for the Directors Guild of America, he inaugurated a videoconferencing program to connect film classes with working directors. Working with the Graphics Lab at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, he helped develop a digital Cinerama-like process called Vistarama HD.

Kleiser has served as chair of the Directors Guild’s annual Digital Day for over two decades and was invited to join the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

His first book, "Grease: The Director’s Notebook", was published by HarperCollins in 2019, a retrospective look at the making of his first feature film.

His most recent book “Drawing Directors: Volume I” pays tribute to Kleiser's favorite directors, including Steven Spielberg, John Singleton, Ron Howard, Guillermo del Toro, Robert Wise, and Billy Wilder by featuring Randal’s sketches of his fellow directors along with recounting their professional careers, revealing anecdotes about them and his personal opinion about their work.