Sam Irvin (born June 14, 1956) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter, actor, author and film teacher. Irvin's directing credits include Guilty as Charged, Oblivion, Elvira's Haunted Hills, and all the episodes of two television series: Dante's Cove and From Here on OUT. His other credits include co-executive producer of Bill Condon's Academy Award-winner Gods and Monsters; associate producer of Brian De Palma's Home Movies; and historical consultant on the Tony Award-winner Liza's at the Palace. Irvin authored the acclaimed biography Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise (Simon & Schuster), the children's book parody Sam's Toilet Paper Caper! (Knuckle Samwitch Books), and the novel ORBGASM: An Erotic Pulp Sci-Fi Satyricon (Knuckle Samwitch Books). Irvin has won two Rondo Awards for Best Article of the Year ("The Epic Saga Behind Frankenstein: The True Story" published in Little Shoppe of Horrors magazine #38) and Best Interview of the Year ("Elvira Exposed!" published in Screem magazine #36). Between projects, Irvin taught graduate courses on directing at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Career Samuel Lowe Irvin, Jr. was born June 14, 1956, in Asheville, North Carolina. His grandfather, Warren Irvin, was the district manager for Wilby-Kincey Theaters, a chain of cinemas throughout the southeastern United States. His father, Sam Irvin Sr., co-owned Irvin-Fuller Theaters, a competing chain with cinemas in both North and South Carolina. Irvin worked in these theaters in his youth. Later, during his college years, he worked for Irvin-Fuller Theaters as its Advertising and Publicity Manager. As a teenager, Irvin edited and published two issues of the fanzine Pit (69-70), and four annual issues of Bizarre (1972–1975), a fanzine on fantasy, horror and science fiction films, for which he twice traveled to England to conduct in-person interviews, including Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Jane Seymour, Joan Collins, Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, Sir James Carreras, Michael Carreras, etc. In 1978, Irvin graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts. While attending the university, he was the film critic for The Gamecock, the campus newspaper, and won a student film award for his thesis short film. He was also chairman of the University of South Carolina Film Committee that ran a year-round cinema program at the campus theater. During his summer break in 1977, Irvin interned at the Chicago shooting location for Brian De Palma’s