Joel was born in 1982 as the youngest of three brothers in Carson City, Nevada. Shortly after his birth, his family relocated to Lake Tahoe, California, and later to the Sierra Nevada foothills, where he spent his childhood. From a young age, Joel was fascinated by filmmaking and began creating humorous commercials and short films with his friends, using his parents' video camera.
As he grew older, Joel's passion for filmmaking only intensified. After completing high school, he opted not to attend college and instead focused on various music projects. It was during this time that he met his future wife, Adrienne, in 2004 while touring with a band as a drummer. The couple got married in 2005, and Joel soon made the decision to pursue a career in filmmaking.
For several years, Joel worked in various jobs, including construction and welding, to make ends meet. During this time, he honed his skills by learning professional editing programs in his free time and saving up for his own camera equipment. In 2010, he took the leap and started his own production company as a camera operator and editor.
Joel's first solo project, The Pink Room, was released in 2011 and marked the beginning of his filmmaking career. The film's success was nothing short of remarkable, garnering over a dozen film festival awards and a regional Emmy in California in 2014. Since then, Joel has gone on to work on a wide range of projects, including documentaries and television series.
His most recent film, Tending Clouds, was completed in 2020 and has been highly anticipated. Joel has hinted that his next project will be a comedy, marking a departure from his previous, more serious work.
Joel and his wife, Adrienne, a New York Times Bestselling novelist, have four children and reside in the mountains of North Carolina.
