Joe Menendez / Biography

Award-winning writer/director Joe Menendez most recently directed (and edited) Ladrón que roba a ladrón (2007) for Lionsgate Films, which opened in 340 theaters nationwide on August 31st, 2007 and went on to gross the biggest opening weekend for a Spanish-language film in U.S. movie history.Menendez has directed over 57 hours of television, written numerous teleplays and produced a reality TV show. A fixture at Nickelodeon in both single and multi-camera, Menendez directed multiple episodes for several Nickelodeon shows including "Just Jordan" (2007), "Unfabulous" (2004), "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide" (2004),"Taina" (2001) and "The Brothers Garcia" (2000) for which he won an Alma Award for Outstanding Directing In A Comedy in 2001.Menendez has also directed an episode of "Cuts" (2005) for the network formerly known as UPN. Additionally, he wrote two episodes for the PBS kids show "Dragon Tales" (1999) and produced a reality TV series for the upstart cable network SiTV called,"Urban Jungle" (2004).In 2003, Menendez was a Staff Writer on the Fox sitcom, "Luis" (2003) starring Luis Guzman and the feature film, Hunting of Man (2003) , which he edited, wrote and directed in 2002, won best picture at the 2003 New York Latino International Film Festival and the coveted Festival Director Award For Excellence at the 2003 Method Fest where Menendez was also nominated for Best Director. The film is available on DVD.From the 1999 through 2001 seasons, Menendez directed multiple episodes for three different Columbia Tri-Star multi-camera half hours: "Beltrán, Los" (1999), "¡Viva Vegas!" (2000) and the "One Day At A Time" remake, Solo En America, which aired on the Telemundo Network since 1998. Menendez also wrote several episodes for Los Beltran.Menendez went into half-hours after a three-year run on another Telemundo show, called "Placas" (1996), where he was hired at age 26, to direct reenactments for this reality-based TV show. During its run, which ended in 1999, Placas consistently scored big in the ratings. Much of that success was due to Menendez's slick-looking reenactments. He ended up directing no less than 215 reenactments for Placas and personally edited, many times even wrote, these "mini-movies", which ran about 8 to 10 minutes each.In 1995, a year before taking the daunting reigns at Placas, Menendez directed over 20 reenactments for the nationally syndicated TV show: "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol" (1993). Real Stories was literally wedged between two writing assignments for HBO.The first came in 1994, when HBO commissioned Menendez, on his 25th birthday no less, to write "Cinderella" for HBO's new animated series "Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child" (1995). On that show, Jimmy Smits, Edward James Olmos, Raquel Welch, Daphne Zuniga and Sonia Braga supplied the voices.Then in 1996, Menendez wrote "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" for the same HBO series, this one featuring the voice talents of Jon Secada, Daisy Fuentes, Hector Elizondo and Liz Torres.Born in New York City of Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, at the raw age of seven, Menendez commandeered his grandmother's Super 8 movie camera and began directing, shooting and editing little movies starring his little brother, cousins and friends. He moved to L.A. from Miami in 1992, where he worked various odd-jobs at places like Star Search, Saban Entertainment and lastly at FOX in Latin America, where he eventually went on to write and produce on-air promos, before getting a chance, at age 24, to be a staff writer on a Soap Opera for the then newly-sprung FX Channel called Cassandra, which was never produced. Since then, he's never stopped working as either a writer or a director or both.Ladrón que roba a ladrón (2007) was produced under Menendez's Narrow Bridge Films banner (in association with Panamax Films), alongside is producing partner wife, Roni Menendez. Together, their company also produced Hunting of Man (2003) and "Urban Jungle" (2004). Both currently reside in Los Angeles with their young daughter.