Savage Steve Holland is an American film and television director, writer, producer, animator and voice actor most known for directing Better Off Dead (1985) and One Crazy Summer (1986), starring John Cusack. He also directed the film How I Got into College (1989), and animated the "Whammy" on the game show Press Your Luck. He later went on to create and produce Eek! the Cat and The Terrible Thunderlizards for Fox Kids.
Holland now manages his own studio, Savage Studios Ltd., and directs shows for Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.
Biography
From a young age, Holland had an avid interest in animation, and went to the California Institute of the Arts. While there, he became more interested in filmmaking and made a semi-autobiographical short titled My 11-Year-Old Birthday Party, which played at some minor film festivals and ended up opening the LA Film Festival. Another one of his student projects, Going Nowhere Fast (1980), was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art show Tomorrowland: CalArts in Moving Pictures. Through Henry Winkler, who saw his work and liked it, Holland soon landed a deal to direct his first feature. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to successfully "sell" the film at the time, but hopes to make it in the future. "That's kind of my dream script," he said. "That's the one I wanna make and then I just wanna, like, go off into the sunset."