Biography

Mr. Juan J. Frausto is the oldest of his parents seven children. As a young boy, he remembers his father taking the family to the show and watch Mexican films and especially all Bruce Lee's movies ever made. What caught his attention to storytelling were two films by filmmaker Felipe Cazal's Canoa and El Apando. The gripping reality of those films left a mature impression on him at the tender age of seven.

At the age of eleven, he became interested in filmmaking after watching the making of Star Wars and from that point, he knew he wanted to be part of this fascinating collaborative process of making movies. Upon graduating from Curie High School in 1987 where his major was music, Frausto studied filmmaking and screenwriting at Columbia College Chicago.

In 1993, he received a $5,000 Community Film Workshop grant to finish his first feature film, Change. The story of three Mexican families who finds themselves struggling to find a balance between their Mexican heritage and American influences on them. The emotional drama premiered at the Chicago Latino Film Festival in April of '94, and many universities and cultural centers across the country. He was recognized as being the first Latino filmmaker to produce a feature film in Chicago. The ultra-low budget film took three years to complete and cost $25,000 to produce.

Since then, he has also directed and/or produced several successful, Independent feature film projects. Artisan/Lions Gate Films released DRIVE BY in January of 2002. To date, it has grossed over $4.7 million dollars domestically, more than 6600% of its original production budget. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE HOOD was released by Maverick Entertainment in 2004 and has brought in more than $1.2 million dollars domestically, more than 10 times its original production budget. Maverick Entertainment also released MURDER ON THE BORDER (aka LA MIGRA). The gripping drama was released in 2005 and received great acclaim at the Chicago Latino Film Festival.

Mr. Frausto's films have been shown on HBO, HBO Latino, Starz, Encore, the Independent Film Channel, Cine Mexicano, and Pay-Per-View. Mr. Frausto just wrapped on the two supernatural horror movies THE POSSESSION DIARIES and A PSYCHO'S PATH, both premiering in 2019. He now resides in Los Angeles, California.
- IMDb mini biography by: Unknown