Biography

Gregory grew up in Western New York and lived in New York City for 21 years before settling in Buffalo. He studied film production at the School of Visual Arts, and at age 19 worked as Unit Production Manager on the horror-comedy I Was a Teenage Zombie. In 1986 he directed and produced his first feature, the cult classic midnight movie Slime City, which he also wrote. He then worked as First Assistant Director on two other 1980s cult films, Plutonium Baby and Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage, before directing his second feature, the neo-noir vampire thriller Undying Love, which the New York Daily News called “stylish and atmospheric.” His remaining NYC film work included the crime drama West New York (Associate Producer, First Assistant Director), the thriller Naked Fear (Screenwriter, Director, Producer), and the unreleased comedy Just the 4 of Us (Associate Producer, First Assistant Director). He is currently in post-production on his 10th feature, the werewolf thriller Frenzy Moon, which will be released in he fall of 2025.

Moving to Buffalo, Gregory switched gears. His first three novels, Personal Demons, Johnny Gruesome and The Frenzy Way, based on unproduced screenplays, won the IPPY Gold Medal for Horror. Personal Demons and Johnny Gruesome were also Bram Stoker Award finalists, along with his instructional filmmaking book Cheap Scares: Low Budget Horror Filmmakers Share Their Secrets. Personal Demons spawned five sequels and The Frenzy Way two. His other novels are Black Creek and The Julian Year (initially released as the first interactive TREEbook), and he wrote two novellas, Carnage Road and Scaremonger. His literary work received positive reviews from such mainstream platforms as Publishers Weeky and Booklist.

While building a reputation as an author, Gregory continued making independent movies and helped establish the Buffalo filmmaking community. He wrote, produced, and directed Slime City Massacre, then produced Sam Qualiana’s Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast and The Legend of Six Fingers. He produced and directed the horror comedies Dry Bones, which he also wrote, and Killer Rack, written by Paul McGinnis. He wrote, directed, and produced the teen horror film Johnny Gruesome, the haunted lighthouse thriller Widow’s Point and the action film Guns of Eden. Widow’s Point starred Craig Sheffer and was based on a novella by New York Times bestselling author Richard Chizmar and W.H. Chizmar. A small sampling of the many films Gregory has worked on in WNY includes Debbie Rochon's Model Hunger (First Assistant Director, Associate Producer) and Chris Ray's Battledogs and Assault on VA-33 (both as First Assistant Director). He has moderated Buffalo Niagara Film Professionals on Facebook for 13 years.

Gregory's films have won many awards on the film festival circuit, and he's been at it long enough that he's started receiving recognition for his decades in the busines. In 2017, he was named NCCC Film & Animation Fest’s inaugural Filmmaker of the Year, and in 2019, Shawna Shea Film Festival presented him with its prestigious William C. Gerrity Award, named after the legendary Hollywood hyphenate who worked as First Assistant Director on films like The French Connection before producing Sophie’s Choice.

Gregory is an advocate for film production in Western New York, and has championed the New York State Film Production Tax Credit. He co-founded Buffalo Scream Horror Film Festival, which ran for three years, and Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, which ran for ten, before recently launching Amazing Fantasy Fest, his first festival as solo director. Valkyrie International Film Festival, spotlighting films directed by women, is run by his wife Tamar (herself a producer) and daughter Kaelin.  He recently formed Cinema Arts Collaborative, Inc., a new non-profit devoted to growing the WNY film community.

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