Stacy Peralta - Behind The Camera

Behind The Camera

In 1992, Peralta left Powell-Peralta to direct and produce for television full-time. His lingering love of the board manifested itself in the film, Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary film regarding the legendary skateboard team known as the Z-Boys, and Riding Giants, a 2004 documentary of the history of modern big wave surfing and tow-in surfing. Dogtown won an award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Peralta also wrote the screenplay for the dramatic retelling of the Dogtown days in Lords of Dogtown (2005). His most recently released film, Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008), focuses on gang violence in south-central Los Angeles which provides insights into the origins of the infamous Crips and Bloods with a look at the social injustice of 1950s and 60s L.A.

In 2008, Peralta directed a series of television commercials for Burger King in which the Inuit people of Greenland, Transylvanians of Romania and Hmong of Thailand, known as "Whopper virgins" in the ads, were offered their first taste of a fast food hamburger and asked to compare the Whopper to McDonald's Big Mac. Peralta subsequently came under attack for what some deemed exploitation of native peoples.

Peralta's experience as an entrepreneur and skate demo filmmaker was adapted for the video game Tony Hawk's Underground. In 2003 Peralta also did cameo work in the game where he played himself.

Divorced in the 1990s, Peralta had one son, pianist Austin Peralta who died on November 21, 2012.