Born and raised in NYC

Directed the award-winning short "High Finance", starring Joel Silver

Moved to L.A.

Found work doing video and sound editing

Attended the American Film Institute as a directing fellow; directed the 1977 short "Getting It Over With"

Feature directorial debut, the teen classic "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"

Directed the Michael Keaton gangster comedy "Johnny Dangerously"

Had a cameo acting role in John Landis's "Into the Night"

Helmed the troubled but commercially successful "National Lampoon's European Vacation"

Debuted as a television writer with "Death Benefits", an episode of the CBS comedy anthology series "George Burns Comedy Week"

Served as supervising producer of "Fast Times", the CBS version of the feature; also directed the pilot

Served as supervising producer of "Tough Cookies" (also wrote an episode), a short-lived CBS cop sitcom

Produced "Life on the Flipside", an unsold sitcom pilot

Feature writing debut, "Look Who's Talking", a sleeper hit comedy; also directed

Helmed the successful follow-up "Look Who's Talking Too"

Received a creator's credit on "Baby Talk", a short-lived ABC sitcom loosely derived from "Look Who's Talking"

Feature producing debut as co-producer of "Look Who's Talking Now", the second sequel to the original; also scripted and directed

Was screenwriter and director of "Clueless", the popular and critically acclaimed Beverly Hills-set modern reworking of Jane Austen's "Emma"

Was creator and executive producer of the TV series adaptation "Clueless" (ABC 1996-1997; UPN 1997-1999); also directed and scripted some episodes

Produced "A Night at the Roxbury", a comedy feature based on the club-hopping Bubati brothers from "Saturday Night Live"

Was executive producer of the sentimental and unsuccessful Elisabeth Shue vehicle "Molly"

Helmed the New York City college-set comedy "Loser"

Directed an episode for the American version of the workplace comedy "The Office" (NBC)

Directed Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd in the romantic comedy "I Could Never Be Your Woman," also wrote screenplay