Oren Peli ( he, אורן פלאי / אורן פלי; born January 21, 1970) is an Israeli film director, producer and screenwriter, known for directing the 2007 film ''

Paranormal Activity Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

''.

Early life

Peli was born in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. At the age of 19, he moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Career

Peli began as a computer software programmer, and was one of the developers behind

Photon Paint Photon Paint is a Hold-And-Modify (HAM) based bitmap graphics editor for the Amiga, first released in 1987. Photon Paint was the first bitmap graphics editor to incorporate 3D solid modeling and texture mapping as an integral part of the program ...

, a bitmap graphics program for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

. He is also credited for developing the networking code for the home console versions of ''

Mortal Kombat 3 ''Mortal Kombat 3'' is a 1995 arcade fighting game developed by Midway Games and first released into arcades in 1995. It is the third main installment in the ''Mortal Kombat'' franchise and a sequel to 1993's ''Mortal Kombat II''. As in the prev ...

'', during his work at

Sculptured Software Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game publisher from Long Island, active from 1987 until filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on September 1, 2004. Through a series of acquisitions between 1990 and 2002, Acclaim built itself a large portfol ...

. His first film ''

'' was inspired by Peli moving into his first house alone and without family nearby. Peli heard creaks and knocks in the night, which laid the groundwork for a film about a family running around with cameras trying to catch what was going on in the house. After the success of ''Paranormal Activity'', Peli worked with

James Wan James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian director, producer, screenwriter and comic book writer. He has primarily worked in the horror genre as the co-creator of the ''Saw'' and ''Insidious'' franchises and the creator of The Conjurin ...

and

Leigh Whannell Leigh Whannell (; is an Australian screenwriter, actor, film producer, and film director. He is best known for writing films directed by his friend James Wan, including ''Saw'' (2004), ''Dead Silence'' (2007), ''Insidious'' (2010), and '' Insid ...

to develop ''Insidious''. Peli also produced and wrote the 2012 horror film ''

Chernobyl Diaries ''Chernobyl Diaries'' is a 2012 American disaster horror film co-written and produced by Oren Peli and directed by Brad Parker, in his directorial debut. The film stars Jonathan Sadowski, Jesse McCartney, Devin Kelley, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Ing ...

'', based on the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

and on his story ''The Diary of Lawson Oxford''. The film followed "a group of friends who, while vacationing in Europe, find themselves stranded in the abandoned city of

Prypiat, Ukraine Pripyat ( ; russian: При́пять), also known as Prypiat ( uk, При́пʼять, , ), is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 19 ...

only to discover that they are not alone."

Television

In 2012, '' The River'' premiered on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

, a paranormal/action/horror television series about a group of people on a mission to find a missing TV explorer in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

. Peli co-created the show with

Michael R. Perry Michael R. Perry (born April 15, 1963 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American television producer, television writer and screenwriter. . His television credits include ''Eerie, Indiana'', ''New York Undercover'', ''American Gothic'', ''The Practice' ...

, who co-wrote ''

Paranormal Activity 2 ''Paranormal Activity 2'' is a 2010 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Tod Williams and written by Michael R. Perry, Christopher Landon and Tom Pabst. The film is a prequel to the 2007 film ''Paranormal Activity'', b ...

''.

Films

Peli is writer and director of ''

Area 51 Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport ...

'', a story about three friends who want to discover the secrets of the fabled

. Peli is also the producer of all films in the ''Paranormal Activity'' franchise and '' The Lords of Salem''.

Filmography

Video games

* 1998: ''

NFL Xtreme ''NFL Xtreme'' is an American football video game released for the Sony PlayStation in 1998. The game was produced by 989 Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as a competitor to Midway Games' NFL Blitz series. Gameplay Essentia ...

'' (programmer) * 2019: ''Night Terrors: Bloody Mary'' (executive producer)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peli, Oren 1970 births Israeli film directors Israeli film producers Israeli male screenwriters Living people Video game programmers Jewish American writers Israeli emigrants to the United States Israeli male writers Horror film directors Israeli Jews 21st-century American Jews