Joseph Zaso (born November 20, 1970) is an American actor and filmmaker.
He is a
b-movie regular and has been involved in the low budget
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
and
horror industry since 1990. Zaso, an avid
bodybuilder
Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses ...
, is usually cast as husky villains.
Career
Zaso was born in
Queens, New York City
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
. He formed his own film production company Cinema Image Productions in 1986 and since then he has primarily produced and acted in
horror films
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoc ...
.
Cinema Image Productions
Zaso broke into the film industry with the horror musical ''It's Only a Movie'' (1990), which he wrote, directed, and appeared in. He followed it up with several producing jobs, including the Italian giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
-inspired ''Five Dead on the Crimson Canvas''.
He teamed up with New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
director Kevin Lindenmuth on several pictures, including ''Alien Agenda: Endangered Species'' (1998), ''Rage of the Werewolf'' (1999), and ''Addicted to Murder 3: Blood Lust'' (2000). He also worked with German horror director Andreas Schnaas on both '' Demonium'' (2001) and '' Nikos'' (2003).
Zaso has also appeared as an extra in the film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) and on the popular daytime TV series, All My Children.
Zaso also appeared in the Martin Scorsese film, The Wolf of Wall Street and the HBO Feature
film, The Normal Heart.
Zaso also appeared as real-life mobster Angelo Sepe in the Fox Nation docudrama The Great American Heist which concerned the 1978 Lufthansa Heist at JFK airport.
Filmography
*''It's Only a Movie!'' (1990)
*''Five Dead on the Crimson Canvas'' (1996)
*''Guilty Pleasures'' (1997)
*''Creaturealm: From the Dead'' (1998)
*'' Evil Streets'' (1998)
*''Alien Agenda: Endangered Species'' (1998)
*''Rage of the Werewolf'' (1999)
*''Addicted to Murder 3: Blood Lust'' (2000)
*''Date with a Vampire'' (2001)
*'' Demonium'' (2001)
*'' Nikos'' (2003)
*'' The Adventures of Young Van Helsing: The Quest for the Lost Scepter'' (2004)
*''And Then They Were Dead...'' (2004)
*''Red Midnight'' (2005)
*''Demon Resurrection'' (2005)
*''Angel's Blade'' (2006)
*'' Barricade'' (2007)
*''Darkness Surrounds Roberta'' (2007)
*''Funland'' (2008)
*''Timo Rose's Beast'' (2008)
*''Virus X'' (2010)
*''BearCity'' (2010)
*''Perry St'' (2010) - Short film
*''Braincell'' (2010)
*''Revenge of the Egg'' (2011) - Short film
*''CAFE HIMBO'' (2011-2012) - Web-Series
*''Supernaturalz'' (2012)
*''Animal Attraction'' (2012) - Short film
*''Can You Survive a Horror Movie?'' (2012) - TV Special
*'' The Wolf of Wall Street'' (2013)
*''Jack Attack'' (2013) - Short film
*''The Normal Heart'' (2014)
*''Tales of Poe'' (2014)
*''Mauvaises Tetes'' (2015) - Short film
*''Hotel Bleu'' (2016)
*''The Great American Heist'' (2022) - Docudrama
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaso, Joe
American male soap opera actors
American bodybuilders
People from Queens, New York
American male film actors
1970 births
Living people
Film directors from New York City