Biography

Joe O'Connell's film Rondo and Bob examines the life of Texas Chain Saw Massacre art director Robert Burns and Burns' obsession with the actor Rondo Hatton. It ran the film festival circuit from late 2020 through 2021 and won multiple awards. It was released streaming in 2022. His debut feature is Danger God, which details the life and career of B-movie star and stuntman Gary Kent. O'Connell is a former film industry columnist for The Austin Chronicle, Dallas Morning News and Austin American-Statesman. In 2022, he completed the Lighthouse Writers Workshop's Book Project where he worked on The Contortionists, a book about the Ross Sister of West Texas. O'Connell lives on the outskirts of Austin, Texas.
- IMDb mini biography by: Loveandotherstunts

Joe O'Connell has written about the Texas film industry in columns for the Dallas Morning News, The Austin Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman. In the past he was a frequent extra (and often wrote about the experience for newspapers) in movies including Courage Under Fire, The Newton Boys, Varsity Blues, Where the Heart Is and in two episodes of the MTV television series Austin Stories.

In Courage Under Fire, he is magically in the same scene twice--as a bar patron and a guy on the telephone across the room.

He is the author of the novel Evacuation Plan, which won the North Texas Book Award and was a finalist for the Violet Crown Book Award.

Delayed by Covid, his film Rondo and Bob--a documentary about Texas Chain Saw Massacre art director Robert A. Burns' obsession with '40s actor Rondo Hatton--had one film festival screening at the end of 2020. Midway through 2021, the film began an international festival run including at Sitges Film Festival in Spain, South African Horror Fest, Morbido Film Festival in Mexico and Cine-Express in the United Kingdom. In the U.S., it screened widely including at Texas Frightmare Weekend. The Horrible Imaginings Film Fest, created a new event, Horrible Realities, just for Rondo and Bob. It was booked for a week of Austin, Texas, screenings by Galaxy Theatres.