Steve Carr

Director Steve Carr may be best known for helming madcap comedies like the Kevin James-fronted crime caper "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," but Carr's directing career evolved out of an early ambition to be an artist. After training as a painter and illustrator at Manhattan's prestigious School of Visual Arts, Carr started his own design company, The Drawing Board, and approached Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons about designing album covers for the label's kinetic stock of hip-hop artists. Before long, hip-hop stars like Jay-Z, Public Enemy and Lauren Hill were calling upon Carr to apply his visionary aesthetic to their music videos as a director. His successes within this medium inspired rapper Ice Cube to hire Carr to direct the sequel to his urban stoner comedy "Friday." Carr made his directorial film debut in 2000 with "Next Friday," which was a hit with audiences. From there, he was hired to helm another sequel, "Dr. Doolittle 2," a talking-animals, family-comedy that starred A-list funnyman Eddie Murphy. He'd go on to reteam with Murphy on the parenthood comedy "Daddy Day Care" and with Ice Cube the suburbs-set sequel to "Are We There Yet?," "Are We Done Yet?." Carr's high-energy approach to comedy has made him a sought-after director in the genre, and so he continues to craft wildly funny features with an ever-expanding cast of willing comedians.