Jeff Castelluccio

Jeff began his entertainment career working as an intern for The Late Night with Conan O'Brien Show and Tribeca Films in New York City. At Tribeca, Jeff's work ethic caught the eye of Academy Award winning actor Robert De Niro who selected Jeff to become one of his personal assistants. Inspired by De Niro, Jeff eventually moved to Los Angeles where he spent the next four years working in production on over 30 feature films and television shows including 24, CSI, American Dreams, Shopgirl, American Pie: Band Camp and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator.

During this time Jeff taught himself to edit on Final Cut Pro. When the first piece he edited for his Marine friends in Iraq caught the eye of a production executive, Jeff was offered a job on the spot to cut the Behind the Scenes content for Sony Pictures' Underworld Evolution. Jeff then joined 23D Films, where for several years he edited promos for Disney including Enchanted, Ratatouille, The Game Plan, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Jonas Brothers, Billy Ray Cyrus, Underdog and Extreme Makeover Home Edition. He also edited promos for Spike TV's The Factory.

Jeff moved into documentary filmmaking when he co-edited Red Bull's X-Fighters, which led to a nomination for Best Off-Road Theatrical Film at the 2009 Xtremey Awards. Jeff then went out on his own to edit Tougher Than Iron (2009), a film that tracked the most grueling single day EnduroCross race in the world which collected him two more nominations. This time it was for Best Documentary at the X-Dance Film Festival and another Xtremey Award nomination for Best Off-Road Enduro Film. He immediately followed up with The Tough One, another heart-pounding documentary which earned him his third Xtremey nomination for Best Off-Road Enduro Film.

Based on the success and the quality of his short-form and documentary work, Jeff was asked to edit the independent feature Dakota Skye (2008), which won seven indie film awards. Since then he has edited several feature films including Monster Mutt (2011), the first studio feature film by the Academy Award-winning special effects company Drac Studios. Most recently, Jeff edited the independent film Girlfriend (2010) staring Amanda Plummer (The Fisher King, Pulp Fiction) and Jackson Rathbone (Twilight, The Last Airbender).

Jeff was then requested to serve as the offline editor for Discovery Channel's first 3Dtv promo. This promotional piece will be shown at Discovery's Upfronts, MIP in Cannes, and other industry events prior to the launch of the new network in 2011.

Jeff was born in the Bronx and later raised in Yonkers and Brewster where he learned his blue-collar values from his parents. Jeff always wanted to attend film school and work in the entertainment industry so to earn money for college he became an apprentice ironworker and was mentored by Jimmy Andersen, a legendary Local 40 ironworker whose union took on some of the toughest and most dangerous jobs in New York City. Although deathly afraid of heights, Jeff was even more fearful of losing the respect of Mr. Andersen, and so he worked for six years on a dozen buildings including the IBM World Headquarters, Grand Central Station, and the Ernst & Young National Headquarters in Times Square.

During those years, Jeff earned his B.A. degree in Communications with a concentration in television and film from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. He also has an A.A. degree in Marketing from Westchester Community College in Valhalla, NY. Jeff has trained in the martial arts for fifteen years under the instruction of the iconic karate instructor Sensei Nick Spennicchia (sixth degree black belt). Jeff earned and now holds the rank of Ni-Don Ho (second degree black belt) in the art of Nisei GoJu. Jeff became a certified instructor in August of 1993 and taught for over almost ten years.