Joe Dante (born Joseph Domenick Dante on November 28, 1946) is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and scifi content.

His films include Piranha (1978) and The Howling (1981), both from scripts by John Sayles; Segment 3 of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983); Gremlins (1984), his first major hit, and its sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990); Explorers (1985), Innerspace (1987), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987); The 'Burbs (1989), Matinee (1993), Runaway Daughters (1994), The Second Civil War (1997), The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1997), Small Soldiers (1998), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), and Homecoming (2005). In 1995-1996, Dante worked on The Phantom, and when he was removed from the film, he chose screen credit (as executive producer) rather than pay. He wished he had chosen pay when he saw the results . He was creative consultant on Eerie, Indiana (1991-1992) and directed five episodes. He played himself in the series finale.

Dante was born in Morristown, New Jersey. Dante began his movie career working for Roger Corman, similar to Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron. He worked as an editor on films such as Grand Theft Auto before codirecting Hollywood Boulevard with Allan Arkush. His first full feature film, Piranha, was released in 1978. After the release of The Howling, he was noticed by Steven Spielberg for whom he directed the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, wherein a woman is 'adopted' by an omnipotent child. His first really big hit, Gremlins, which was also produced by Steven Spielberg, was released in 1984. He would work with Spielberg again on Innerspace and Gremlins 2. His films are well known for their movie injokes and their special visual effects.

Dante's wife, Sylvia, portrays one of the nuns at the concert in Arkush's Rock 'n' Roll High School, which Joe co-wrote and directed five scenes when Arkush was ill. Joe's garage is frequently mentioned in audio commentaries as holding many of the props from his various films, such as the Peltzer Peeler Juicer from Gremlins, and where the mock-pornographic scene in The Howling was shot.

Because Dante rarely writes his own screenplays, he has developed a reputation as an auteur in the "a posteriori" Bazinian sense of utilizing and transforming existing works toward his own artistic vision. Dante also developed a stock company of actors who worked with him over a long period of time, in the Woody Allen mode. Dick Miller, for example, has been in all of Dante's feature films and most of his television work, while Belinda Balaski, Archie Hahn, and Robert Picardo come in at close second, third, and fourth, with one less production each, respectively. Other actors Dante has worked with more than once include John Astin, Paul Bartel, Phoebe Cates, Roger Corman, Cory Danziger, Rick Ducommun, Kevin Dunn, Corey Feldman, Carrie Fisher, Joe Flaherty, Courtney Gains, Zach Galligan, Henry Gibson, Charles S. Haas, Heather Haase, Phil Hartman, Bob Holt, Rance Howard, Chuck Jones, Jackie Joseph, Omri Katz, Denis Leary, Sarah Lilly, Kevin McCarthy, Mark McCracken, Michael McKean, Don McCloud, Cathy Moriarty, Ron Perlman, Jason Presson, Kathleen Quinlan, Neil Ross, Diane Sainte-Marie, John Sayles, Wendy Schaal, William Schallert, Michael Scheehaan, Dan Stanton, Don Stanton, Christopher Stone, Dee Wallace-Stone, Meshach Taylor, Kenneth Tobey, and Alexandra Wilson. In addition, he "discovered" Ethan Hawke in the grand Hollywood tradition. His respect for the screenwriter extends to the point where, in order to make sure he can confer with the writer on-set and provide some minor, additional remuneration, he always casts the writer in a small part of the production itself. The studio is normally unwilling to pay to have the writer on-set in any other way.

He has cited among his major influences Roger Corman, Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin, James Whale, and Jean Cocteau, as well as an admiration for the film, Hellzapoppin', from which he frequently borrows jokes because of how difficult the film is to see in the United States.

Joseph Dante Jr. was born on November 28, 1946 in Morristown, New Jersey, and raised in the nearby borough of Parisippany. His parents were professional golf players and his father wrote some books on the instructions of playing golf some of which included Four Magic Moves to Winning Golf, and Stop that Slice. After a bout with polio that nearly crippled him at age 7, he slowly recovered and decided to take up drawing rather than athletics as his parents did. Dante studied at the Philadelphia College of Art after graduating from high school. As a teenager, he contributed to Castle of Frankenstein and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines with various drawings, and upon graduation from he College of Art, he became a film critic for the Film Buletin newspaper for which he later became the managing editor. With a friend, named Jon Davidson, Dante cut together a series of movie clips and film trailers and edited them into his first short film which was titled The Movie Orgy (1968) which was shown on college campuses. In 1974, Jon Davidson was the head of advertising for Roger Corman's New World Productions and persuaded Dante to move to California to work for them as an editor for various movie trailers and films. In 1976, Roger Corman allowed Dante, to direct his very first feature film with New World staffer Alan Arkush which was titled Hollywood Boulevard (1976), a low-budget feature filmed in black-and-white in just 10 days on a $50,000 budget, in which Date and Arkush inserted stock footage from other Corman-produced films. Hoping to get the jump on the success of the Steven Spielberg film Jaws, Corman commissioned Dante to direct Piranha (1978) around the same time Jaws II was being made. Working with a budget of $660,000 and with a script by John Sayles, Dante had his first serious problems with the filming which included last-minute cast changes, underwater cameras that kept breaking down, union woes, and unusable second unit footage. But the finished film was a miracle of low-budget exploitation filmmaking and has become a cult favorite. Date worked as a second unit director for Rock and Roll High School (1979), and was then offered by producer Mike Finnell to direct The Howling (1981). With another script by John Sayles and with a budget of over $1 million, the movie about California werewolves proved to be another box-office hit, highlighted by state-of-the-art special effects by Rob Bottin. After directing two out of six episodes for the short-lived comic TV series "Police Squad! (1982), Dante found himself working alongside Steven Spielberg, John Landis and Australian director George Miller for the anthology movie The Twilight Zone, The Movie (1983) in which Dante directed the third segment, a remake of a 1961 original Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life", which allowed him to draw the script from his love of cartoons which played a major part in the segment. Steven Spielberg then hired him to to work as director for the Chris Columbus script of Gremlens (1984) which was another box-office success. Dante then directed Explorers (1985) which starred Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix as suburban kids seeking alien life. But the Paramount distributors rushed the film before Dante was finished editing it and the studio's lackluster effort to advertise it led him to become disillusioned with the movie industry. He directed some episodes for the Sci-Fi series "Amazing Stories" before directing his next Science Fiction feature which was Innerspace (1987) a take on the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage, but was another box office failure. After directing five episode for the series "Eerie, Indiana", Dante returned to the big-screen with the the well-received Matinee (1993), an affectionate period satire set in 1962 against the background of the Cold War and starring John Goodman as a film director, inspired by gimmick filmmaker William Castle. Dante spent the next several years working for television and re-making several movies such as Runaway Daughters (1994) and directed a satire on politics with The Second Civil War (1997). Dante's next two films, Toy Soldiers (1998), and Loony Toons: Back in Action (2004) were not well received by critics. He was recruited by Mick Garris to direct an episode of the anthology series "Masters of Horror" (2005) with the episode "Homecoming" which was played as another angry social commentary and pitch-black political satire on the USA policies.