Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0

Co-founded Troma Entertainment with Michael Herz and built it into the flagship of American independent horror-comedy, directing low-budget cult films like The Toxic Avenger (1984) and Tromeo and Juliet (1996). Troma's scrappy, do-it-yourself model — writing, shooting, and distributing outside the studio system — has been credited with helping make filmmaking more accessible and decentralized for generations of independent directors who followed.