Born in St. Louis Park, MN; educated at NYU Institute of Film and TV. With producer and co-writer brother Ethan, Joel Coen is part of the most celebrated brother act in recent entertainment memory. He has helmed a series of stylish, irreverent and cinema-savvy movies that have charmed critics while thrilling a small but loyal band of viewers. Though they evince a powerful fascination with Hollywood genres, the Coens's recent work gets the Serious Film treatment. These are self-conscious movie-movies with style to spare -- featuring manic, witty yet sinuous camera movements, slick yet richly textured sets and lighting, and powerhouse performers spouting smart and beautifully artificial dialogue. Indeed, one may leave their films with the sense that the Coens believe in nothing but style. Like Alfred Hitchcock, the Coens believe in detailed preproduction and storyboarding. With the notable exception of RAISING ARIZONA (1987), they favor chilly irony in the grand tradition of Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. But they lack Hitchcock's obsessiveness and moral seriousness and fail to match Kubrick's intellect and profound pessimism. Nonetheless, their undeniable virtuosity and terminal cool have propelled them to the front ranks of the generation of filmmakers that has emerged since the halcyon days of the 1970s American auteurs (Altman, Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, et al). Though they are visually oriented and allow no deviations from their scripts, actors love to work with them due to the trust they inspire with their low-key directing style. (Though Joel is officially the director and Ethan, the producer, they tend to work as an unit, chuckling together at private jokes and completing each other's sentences.) Most impressively, studios scramble to back their distinctive projects though the first four of them cumulatively grossed less than ACE VENTURA, PET DETECTIVE (1994). That they rarely make a profit hardly matters; they're a class act. They're like Woody Allen without all the Jewish New Yorker baggage (though the Coens are Jewish and live in NYC). The Coens have collaborated with writer-director Sam Raimi (best known for DARKMAN and the EVIL DEAD series) on several projects. Though Joel Coen and Raimi have similar sensibilities -- hellzapoppin' camerawork and a weakness for genre -- the latter has yet to gain comparable critical cachet. This may be due to the Coens' excellent track record with actors and their shrewd avoidance of disreputable genres, like horror and action. Moreover, while Raimi's movies don't pretend to be about anything much, the brothers' films have an ineffable patina of depth. One hungers for the day when they tackle a project which finally reveals their heretofore concealed passions -- their VERTIGO, their PATHS OF GLORY. (See the biography of Ethan Coen for a film-by-film listing of their work.)  Nominated for Achievement in Directing 1996: FARGO  Best Achievement in Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) 1996: FARGO (w. Ethan Coen)  Nominated for Achievement in Film Editing 1996: FARGO (as Roderick Jaynes) (w. Ethan Coen)  Nominated for Achievement in Writing (Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published) 2000: O BROTHER, WHERE ARE THOU? (w. Ethan Coen)  Best Picture of the Year 2007: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN - Producer (w. Scott Rudin & Ethan Coen)  Best Achievement in Directing 2007: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (w. Ethan Coen)  Best Achievement in Writing: Adapted Screenplay 2007: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (w. Ethan Coen)  Nominated for Achievement in Film Editing 2007: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (as Roderick Jaynes) (w. Ethan Coen)  Nominated for Best Picture of the Year 2009: A SERIOUS MAN - Producer (w. Ethan Coen)  Nominated for Achievement in Writing (Original Screenplay) 2009: A SERIOUS MAN - Producer (w. Ethan Coen) 10 nominations, 4 Awards