New York-based writer-director has worked in independent films since 1980. DiCillo began as a director of photography for independent filmmakers, most notably Jim Jarmusch for whom he shot the features "Permanent Vacation" (1980), "Stranger Than Paradise" (1984) and the short "Coffee and Cigarettes" (1986). DiCillo moved to directing and screenwriting with the off-beat and uneven "Johnny Suede" (1991). Adapting his own one man stage show, DiCillo cast Brad Pitt as the title character, a talentless musician--with a huge pompadour--who comes to terms with the shortcomings of his life.

DiCillo developed his second feature, the comedy "Living in Oblivion" (1995), after his original plans for a different second film fell through five times. As a fallback, he shot the first third of "Oblivion" as a short in hopes of gathering financing for the second two parts, (a tactic Jarmusch used to complete financing on "Stranger Than Paradise"). The result was a keenly observed, comic critique on the horrors of shoestring filmmaking with strong central performances by Steve Buscemi as the harried director and James LeGros as the "hip" selfish star of the film-within-a-film.