Jeremiah S. Chechik (born Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian film and television director and photographer. His feature work includes National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Benny & Joon (1993), Diabolique (1996) and The Avengers (1998). He is also notable for his work in television, directing episodes for such shows as The Bronx Is Burning (2007), Burn Notice (2007–2013), Chuck (2007–2012), and Reginald the Vampire (2022–2024).
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Biography
While at McGill University, Chechik studied the theatrical arts. After graduating, he became a fashion photographer for Vogue. Since he also had a background in both music and design, Chechik decided to pursue filmmaking.
He landed early gigs directing television commercials, which impressed Stanley Kubrick who mentioned them in a NY Times article. Subsequently, he was invited to develop a film for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment that took place in and around the Apollo Theater in New York City. It was planned as a "very small movie" starring unknown actors.
Though that film was never made, Chechik began receiving scripts while at Warner Bros., eventually landing on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation which would become his feature directorial debut.
The following year, Chechik began production on Arrive Alive which was shut down after eighteen days of shooting. The producers felt that star Willem Dafoe's performance was not funny enough and disrupted the comedic tone of the script. The footage has not been released in any form.
After directing several other films throughout the 1990s, Chechik was nominated for Worst Director at the 1998 Golden Raspberry Awards for The Avengers but lost to Gus Van Sant for his remake of Psycho.
After the failure of that film, Chechik took a break from directing and decided to travel. "I had an extreme kind of experiences all over the world, warzones and the like," he later reflected. Out of that, Chechik, who had never directed something he had written, began to write screenplays. While some of them were either commissioned or optioned by various studios, he decided that the development process had become too slow to pursue the projects.
Instead, Chechik began directing for television. In 2007, he helmed eight episodes of The Bronx is Burning. The following year, he and producer Michael Birnbaum purchased the screen rights to House of Night, a juvenile vampire book series from authors P. C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast.
He returned to the theatrical venue in 2013 with the film The Right Kind of Wrong, which was screened in the Gala Presentation section at that year's Toronto Film Festival.
In 2025, an exhibition of his artwork, titled Jeremiah Chechik: Explorer, was held at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center.
Filmography
Directed works
Film
Television
