Biography

I more or less grew up in the very religious town of Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, based on the mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg, where I worried about whether I’d go to heaven or hell.
 My parents were drunks, but pretty cool. I have five younger brothers and sisters.

At around 12, I began to wonder what it’d be like to get laid. This was during the cold war. We used to go down into the basement of our imposing Gothic cathedral to practice for when the nukes hit.
I used to wonder if I’d get laid before that happened. I never wondered if the people running my church and the country were insane. I thought maybe I was. I was in Chicago during the Democratic Convention Riots of 1968. It was a police riot, by the way. A lot of kids got beat up. I didn’t , but I did get laid the next year in college. I discovered film there. I went to NY to make films, then Hollywood.

I’ve made some films I’m proud of and some I’m not. I’ve made a good living in TV. I’ve raised two kids who got famous. Pretty much from the beginning I wondered if I was crazy. After awhile I wondered if the culture was nuts and where the hell were we all going?

About two years ago I realized I wanted to change my life. I was in analysis five days a week, dream interpretation. I found dreams to be quite wild and insightful. I published a book of poetry. I’m finishing a novel. I guess I want to make some more movies now that hopefully cause a little trouble. I’m hoping this website and whatever else I do causes some trouble too. Time will tell…

Stephen Gyllenhaal