Born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Randal Kleiser began making films in his parent’s basement at a young age after seeing Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. After high school, he went to University of Southern California to pursue a career as a filmmaker. At USC, he made several short films including his master’s thesis, Peege. Unusual for a student film at the time, he cast veteran TV actors in lead roles. His ability to direct these actors garnered him attention from executives at Universal Television, which led to his first professional job directing episodes of Marcus Welby, M.D.

In addition to Marcus Welby, Kleiser’s credits in episodic television include Lucas Tanner, The Rookies and Starsky and Hutch. He has also directed TV movies like Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976), The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), All Together Now (1975) and The Gathering (1977), for which he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Special Program – Drama or Comedy. He is also well-known for his feature film career including Grease (1978), starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John; The Blue Lagoon (1980); Summer Lovers (1982); Flight of the Navigator (1986); Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992); White Fang (1991); It’s My Party (1996) and Lovewrecked (2005).

Kleiser has served 8 terms on the National Board and 17 terms on the Western Directors Council. He is a member of the DGA Political Action Leadership Committee and the Special Projects Committee and chairs its Digital Day subcommittee.