Stephen Herek is an American director who began his career with the horror movie Critters in 1986 which went on to become a cult horror classic. Herek has since then directed several commercial movies and a few television movies such as Picture This, Into the Blue 2: The Reef, and The Chaperone.
Movie Career
Herek was born in Texas and studied at the University of Texas, in Austin. He made his directorial debut in 1986 with the horror comedy movie Critters. The movie stars Dee Wallace-Stone, M. Emmet Walsh, and Scott Grimes. Although the movie was a success it is said to have been a spinoff of the film Gremlins which was released in 1984.

In 1989, Herek directed his second movie, a sci-fi comedy, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure starring Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, and George Carlin. The movie was a box office hit and was highly influential amongst the teens. Herek's next two movies, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), and The Mighty Ducks (1992), were box office hits. The Mighty Ducks, which was a surprise hit, showcased the story of the coach of a weak hockey team and also inspired the creation of the new hockey team, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim – owned by the Walt Disney Company.

In his next movie, The Three Musketeers, Herek stuck to the comedy genre, casting Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O'Donnell, and Tim Curry. The movie opened to #1 in its first week but received mostly negative reception from the critics. A couple of years later Herek directed Mr. Holland's Opus (1998); only this time he explored the drama genre unlike his rest of the movies. The movie stars Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role and was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. Dreyfuss was also nominated in the Best Actor category for the Golden Globe and Academy Awards. However, after successfully experimenting in the drama genre, Herek next chose to target the younger audience with the movie 101 Dalmatians. The movie is an adaption of Dodie Smith's 1906 novel, The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Walt Disney Pictures, who released the movie, received mixed reviews from the audience but the movie was a commercial success.

In 1998, Herek directed another comedy film Holy Man, starring Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum, and Kelly Preston. The movie bombed at the box office and received negative reviews. Holy Man was Herek's first failure after a string of hit movies. Later, after a three-year hiatus, Herek directed Rock Star (2001), and Life or Something Like It (2002) – both the movies were a disaster at the box office. To add to his list of flops, his next movie, Man of the House (2005) also failed to impress the audience. After three successive commercial failures, Herek ventured into television films and directed Picture This (2008), Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009), and The Cutting Edge: Fire and Ice (2010).

Herek made a comeback to commercial films only in 2011, directing the movie The Chaperone that stars the popular wrestler Tripple H (Paul Michael Levesque), Yeardley Smith, Kevin Corrigan, and Kevin Rankin. However, alike his last three movies, The Chaperone also received negative reviews. The director then went back to the small screen and directed two television films Jinxed (2013) and Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors (2015), with the latter receiving favorable critic reviews.

Herek's 2016 release includes The Great Gilly Hopkins starring Sophie Nelisse, Julia Stiles, Kathy Bates, Bill Cobbs, and Billy Magnussen.